The Encourager
“The Christian's Mission - by Jeff Curtis”
The Christian’s Mission
By Jeff Curtis
When we consider Jesus’ final instructions to His apostles in Mark 16:14-16 (Matt. 28:18-20), we are struck by both the completeness and the incompleteness of the Lord’s ministry. Jesus came into the world to fulfill the purpose that His Father had given Him. On the Thursday night before His death, His fulfillment of that purpose was so near completion that He could say to His Father in prayer, “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4). He had been perfectly obedient to His Father. At the same time, we see a glaring incompleteness that demands attention. Jesus began His ministry by preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt.4:17). This message was His continual proclamation for roughly 3 ½ years. When He approached the end of His ministry, He was still forecasting the coming of the kingdom (Mark 9:1). He told His apostles, as He led them to Mount Olivet, where He would ascend to the Father, that in a few days the Holy Spirit would come upon them and they would receive power (Acts 1:4-5). When Jesus blessed His apostles and ascended through the clouds, ending for all time His own earthly ministry, the kingdom still had not arrived. It was due to arrive soon, but it had not yet come.
What was Jesus’ ministry meant to accomplish? He didn’t come to end something, but to begin something. His ministry set in place the greatest of all missions. The greatest event of all times was Jesus’ ministry. The Old Testament looked forward to it. It is the heart of the Bible, expressed in what we call the “Great Commission.”
When Jesus gave His final message to His disciples before His ascension, He told them that He had all authority and identified Himself as the designated head of the Christian Era that was beginning. He then commanded them to “make disciples of all the nations” (Matt. 28:19). He went on to indicate that, as the masses accepted the gospel message, the disciples were to baptize believers in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matt.28:19). Those being commissioned were then to teach the ones who had been baptized everything that Jesus had taught them (Matt. 28:20). In His final word of encouragement, Jesus told them that, as they carried out His commission, He would be with them and all the others who would come after them until “the end of the age” (Matt. 29:20).
Jesus had come to start a mission that He would hand over to His disciples and apostles, and then they would live it out as their mission. Upon His return to the Father, Jesus would enter into His work as our mediator at the Father’s right hand, interceding for His people as their High Priest. His plan all along was to leave in the hands of His apostles and disciples – at the appropriate time – this mission that His ministry had begun. He gave his gospel, which He had created by His death and confirmed by His resurrection, to all who followed Him. These followers were to wear His name and become his church. Surely, in this announcement of His mission, we are seeing the supreme goal that Jesus calls upon His church to fulfill daily.
