GREAT COMMISSION: THE BIG PICTURE Study 11: The Human Aspect: SACRIFICE INTRODUCTION We have already discussed four of the five essential components of the human aspect of the Great Commission. We now take up the last component, SACRIFICE. (1) Proclamation (2) Instruction (3) Holy Spirit-filled life and witness (4) Prayer (5) Sacrifice. LAW OF FRUITFULNESS Sacrifice is an unavoidable requisite to effective and fruitful service in God’s kingdom. Christ Himself was not exempt. Looking forward to His impending arrest He seemed to have been subjected to intense enemy attack tempting Him to turn aside from the Father’s will. He fended off the attack by affirming His unswerving commitment to the divine law of fruitfulness, that there must be death before there can be new life, there must be sacrifice before there can be fruitfulness. John 12:23-28: Second only to Christ Himself, Paul gave us an unequivocal demonstration of the importance of sacrifice in the carrying out of the Great Commission. 2 Timothy 2:9, 10: The combination of SACRIFICE and ELECT seems contradictory. If they are elect, then they will surely be saved no matter what humans do or not do. This was certainly the belief of the elderly minister who reprimanded the young pastor William Carey. When Carey explained a plan for carrying the Gospel to India and volunteered to go as a missionary, the elderly minister reportedly told him, “Young man, sit down! If God wants to save the heathen in India, he can do it without your help.” We may expand the elderly minister’s statement to say: God will surely save His elect without requiring sacrifice from any Christian, layman or missionary. But the unavoidable truth is exactly this: for the elect to receive the blessings of the Gospel, sacrifice is required of those who would bring to them the Gospel. In God’s wise providence He entrusted to human messengers the task of the Great Commission, and these human messengers will be required to make sacrifices in fulfilling the task. And again, apart from Christ, Paul provides us a seemingly exhaustive catalogue of the kinds of sacrifices that accompany the task of Gospel proclamation. 2 Corinthians 11;23-33: The subsequent history of missions as well as the biographies of missionaries until the present hour continue to add to this catalogue of sacrifices. In the Book of Revelation the sacrifices of these faithful servants of God are memorialized forever in this scene: Revelation 6:9-11: WHY TALK OF SACRIFICE? But why do we need talk of sacrifice? We need to talk of sacrifice because in our day the Gospel seems to have been divested of its cross. The Gospel is being promoted as “user friendly,” as something that will not inconvenience us in the least; rather, it is what we need to make us happy, healthy, and prosperous. We must return to the true Gospel with the Cross at its very heart. The Great Commission proclaims the Good News of the Christ who died on the cross to redeem people from their sins. That same Great Commission calls people to follow Christ on the path that requires the daily crucifixion of the self-centered life that is at the root of sin which crucified Christ. If we want to be effective and fruitful witnesses of Christ and contribute to the fulfillment of the Great Commission, we must learn to live the life of sacrifice in deepening levels: • Level 1: The Sacrifice of Denying Self – (Luke 9:23) • Level 2: The Sacrifice of Serving Others – (Philippians 2:17) • Level 3: The Sacrifice of Building Up the Body of Christ – (Colossians 1:24) • Level 4: The Sacrifice of Loving Christ – (Acts 9:15, 16) CONCLUSION We now conclude these brief studies on the Great Commission by referring again to our earlier diagram: GREAT COMMISSION: THE BIG PICTURE. From the diagram we see the following truths: • TRUTH 1: GOD PLANNED FROM ALL ETERNITY TO FORM A FAMILY WHOSE MEMBERS BEAR THE LIKENESS OF HIS SON. • TRUTH 2: GOD’S PLAN WAS MADE POSSIBLE IN AND THROUGH HIS SON – HIS BIRTH, DEATH, RESURRECTION, ASCENSION, PRESENT HIGH PRIESTLY MINISTRY AND SECOND COMING. • TRUTH 3: GOD IS CALLING OUT THE MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY THROUGH THE GREAT COMMISSION, WHICH IMPLEMENTS GOD’S ETERNAL PLAN (DIVINE ASPECT) USING HUMAN INSTRUMENTS (HUMAN ASPECT) UNDER THE DIRECTION AND EMPOWERMENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. • TRUTH 4: GOD IS PLACING THOSE WHO RESPOND TO HIS CALL INTO THE CHURCH, THE BODY OF CHRIST, IN ORDER FOR THEM TO BE BUILT UP INTO THE IMAGE OF CHRIST THROUGH THE MUTUAL MINISTRY OF THE MEMBERS ONE TO ANOTHER. APPLICATION As a result of these brief studies, what practical application can we do? We can do the same practical application that we pointed out at the beginning: God has only ONE PROJECT that He is working on today – the GREAT COMMISSION. The best and wisest thing we can do is to join Him in fulfilling the Great Commission… • By GOING as ordinary witnesses or as vocational missionaries; • By PRAYING; • By GIVING; • By SERVING in various ways to facilitate the Great Commission (as senders, trainors, support teams, etc.)
Posted on: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 00:54:08 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015