As we think through the issue of what biblical conversion really is, the ramifications of this are enormous. The Great Commission is usually just tossed out to people in an effort to get them to go out and do evangelism. But the Great Commission does not explicitly command evangelism. It does not command people just to go out and share with others or just to go out and tell others about Jesus. It commands people to make disciples. In other words, the Gospel we preach needs to be in line with people becoming true and whole-hearted followers of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ that we preach must be one that by the power of the Spirit actually converts sinners from being children of the devil to children of the living God. The Gospel of Jesus Christ that we preach must be the Gospel that is the power of God for salvation to those that believe (Rom 1:16-17). The Gospel that is the power of God is the Gospel that saves people from hell and from sin itself. There is no Gospel and no salvation of God that leaves people in the power of their sins.
But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21 “You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.” 22 “Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 “For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity” (Acts 8:20-23).
In the passage above we have the story of Simon. He made a great show of turning from his magic which is a demonstration of some form of repentance. He believed and was baptized. But Simon’s heart had not been changed and he was still in his sin. He was told that he had no part or portion in the matter because his heart was not right before God. Simon of others did not charge Peter with judging his heart as people today would. Peter then went on and judged the intentions of the man and told him that he needed to repent of his wickedness so that the intention of his heart may be forgiven. Peter didn’t even promise forgiveness, but he said “if possible” and then “may.” Peter told Simon that he could see that he was “in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.”
What we see then is an application of the Great Commission. The disciples did not rest in the fact that the man had made a profession and was baptized. They did not rest in the fact that the man had a great outward repentance. Instead, when they saw that this man was still in bondage to his iniquity they stopped considering him as a believer. When Peter saw that the man was in bondage of his sin he told the man that he had no part or portion in the matter. That is what happens when the Great Commission is taken seriously and people stop being so focused on adding numbers to their charts. We can keep count of how many have prayed a prayer, have walked aisles; have been dunked in water, and who take classes. But Jesus commanded us to make disciples of all the people groups. Disciples are to be baptized. Disciples are to be taught to do (not just taught about) all (not just what tickles their ears) that Jesus commanded. When a person has made a profession goes on to show that his or her heart is still in bondage to sin, that is a demonstration s/he is not a disciple of Jesus Christ. That person is still a follower of self.
If the Great Commission would only be carefully read and prayed over the professing Church might begin to see some great evils that have been brought into the “Church” by a false type of thinking about the Great Commission. If we think of our goal as fulfilling the Great Commission, then what we think it commands is what we will do to some degree. If we think that the Great Commission is fulfilled by massive amounts of dollars and efforts toward a form of evangelism that is based on an easy prayer, then that is what we will do. But that has nothing to do with the Great Commission. The Great Commission instructs us in many ways how to do evangelism. Our evangelism must be based on the true conversion of the soul by God. It is only the souls that have been truly converted by the power of God who will truly be followers of Christ. Souls who have decided for themselves and follow Christ in their own power will not obey all that Christ commanded. They will follow what they want to follow or what is in their own power to do. That is pretty much what the Pharisees did as well. They limited the commands of God to outward things to be done and then set about doing them. The followed self and not God.
For anyone to set out to actually do all that Christ commanded in his or her own strength shows that the person has not been truly converted. As Simon’s greed came out when he desired the ability to give the Holy Spirit so many people’s true hearts are seen when it comes time to actually do all the commands of Christ. The half-hearted person will stop at some point. Those who are doing in their own strength will begin to fade or water down the commands of Christ following the time honored way of saying that God would not command what we cannot do. We should also note that it is far easier to study the commands of Christ than it is to do them. Many people are happy to set around and speculate on the commands of Christ, but when it comes time to actually do them they will find other things to keep them busy. But Jesus commanded His people to teach others to actually do what He commanded. So we can simply say that when we see large “churches” full of people not doing what He really commanded we can know that they have not been evangelized and taught to do what He commanded. One can fill old sports coliseums with a smile and easy stories, but those people are not being taught to do all that Christ commanded so they are not true disciples. That may sound judgmental to many, but so be it. Those people are not being taught the commands of God and are certainly not being taught to actually do what He commanded.
It is also easy to talk about evangelism, but it is much harder to actually do it. It is also comparatively easy to do what is known as “cold turkey evangelism.” It is easy to walk up to a stranger and dump a little information on the person. But what is harder (much harder) is to actually begin to deal with a person about the sin of the heart which is rebellion against God. It begins to take time if we are called upon to actually begin to teach a person what Jesus commanded, but it is far harder and takes a lot longer to teach a person to actually do what Jesus commanded. It is at this point, I would think, that personal evangelism must begin to be seen in a different light. If we take the Great Commission and really begin to look at it, personal evangelism must then be seen in light of the ministry of the whole local church. People grow in the faith and are taught to do the deeper things of God in the context of a local church. The Great Commission is not given to a group of excited people who have the energy to go out and throw out some Gospel bombs; it was given to those men who were later called the foundation of the Church.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22).
Jesus specifically gave the Great Commission to His eleven disciples (Mat 28:16). How did they obey it? They went out and evangelized in such a way that biblical churches sprang up. Paul was added by Jesus as an apostle and he went out, preached the Gospel, and churches formed. While Jesus is the foundation in one sense, the text above teaches us that in another sense the apostles and prophets were also a foundation. It was upon them, their work, and their writings that the Church is built on. From the book of Acts through the book of Revelation we see the beginning of churches and the work of churches. Believers were added to the Church. Believers were baptized into the Church. The Great Commission was given to the disciples and they went out and baptized believers and then taught them all that Jesus commanded them to do. Making disciples is the job of the local church.
The whole issue of baptism is also at stake here. It is not just anyone that is to be baptized, but it is disciples who are to be baptized. In the New Testament times it meant something to be baptized. This is pointed to by the fact that a person was commanded to be baptized in “the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Baptism is not just a mark of identification, but it is taking the name of the Trinity upon a person. It is a covenant with God that the person being baptized is no longer his own but is now owned by God. It is not just repeating the names of the Persons of the Godhead over the person being baptized, but it is a covenant that is being performed inwardly when it is done with the right heart. In the New Covenant God says He will put His law in their minds and write them on their hearts (Heb 8:10). But then the same verse goes on to say this: “AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.” In baptism a person takes God to be their God and to be His. In other words, in baptism as person agrees to actually do all that Jesus commanded them to do. How do they know what to do and then how to do it? His Law is in them and His people will be teaching them what to do and how to do it.
The Great Commission is so far from a cheap and popular form of evangelism that it should chill us to the depths of our souls that it has been reduced to such a cheap imitation. But let us face the facts; it has been. If Jesus commanded His disciples to teach disciples to do all that He commanded them, then that command comes to us as those taught to do all that He commanded (should have been) and so we are to teach others to do all He commands. One of His commands is to teach others to do all that He has commanded. But let us learn to evangelize in such a way as to pursue the true conversion of souls or we will practice the true deception of souls. Let us learn to start and/or build churches that teach disciples to do all that Jesus commanded. If not, we will show ourselves to be like Simon who was excited at first, made a great show, but when it came time to deny self he followed the commands of self rather than the command of Christ. He had made a great external change, but he was not willing to actually do all the commands of Christ.
The professing Church is so willing to do evangelism because it increases the numbers in the church (honors us before others) and the offerings (increases our pay and honor in the denominations). But in our day it is not willing to obey the command of Christ to make disciples by teaching them to do all that He has commanded. The professing Church of our day, therefore, is not keeping the Great Commission no matter how much it supports an easy form of evangelism and other good works. The command of the Great Commission (once again) is to make disciples by teaching them to actually do all of His commands. We have fallen far short as we are not even teaching people what the commands are much less teaching them to actually do them. We have much mourning and repentance to do. After all, Jesus commanded those as well.
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