Great Commission Obedience

Jerry Rankin

• Publisher: B&H Books
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780805448795
• eBook ISBN: 9781433673580
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Great Commission Obedience is a resource for pastors that will inspire them to preach boldly on missions and spark an evangelistic resurgence. It featuresmessages compiled by veteran missionary and retired International Mission Board president Jerry Rankin-each one packed with personal illustrations and practical examples of how God is at work around the world today. As the Southern Baptist denomination rallies toward a Great Commission Resurgence, these messages help clear that path and unite volunteer mission teams being sent out by the church.

---

1

---

Don't Nullify God's Grace

Ephesians 3:7–8

As we respond to the challenge of obedience to the Great Commission, it is natural to focus on the future and the place to which God would use us in discipling the nations. While we do not go out of obligation in response to a command, Jesus clearly expected His followers to be engaged in taking the gospel to the peoples of the world. No one is exempt from the task of bringing into the kingdom people from every tribe, language, and nation and discipling them to become followers of Christ. For some the task involves sending, praying, and giving; but the Great Commission will not be fulfilled without those willing to go to the ends of the earth.

A focus on Great Commission obedience is usually from a future perspective. Where am I to go? What does God want me to do? Where does He want me to serve? Anticipating being used of God in a significant way means a willingness to follow wherever He leads, but first we need to reflect on what has brought you to this point of obedience and review from whence you have come.

WE ARE QUALIFIED BY BEING A RECIPIENT OF GOD'S GRACE

God has brought you to this point, not because of your own abilities or qualifications, though you have fulfilled certain standards of education, experience, and personal competency. However, the potential of being used to meet the Great Commission challenge is not because of your education, experience, and personality; it is because of the grace of God. Certainly others have invested in your life in providing discipline, training, influence, and in exposing you to the needs of a lost world. However, in spite of all those factors, you are primarily qualified because of the grace of God.

In Ephesians 3:7–8, Paul says, "I was made a servant of this [gospel] by the gift of God's grace that was given to me by the working of His power. This grace was given to me—the least of all the saints!—to proclaim to the Gentiles the incalculable riches of the Messiah."

1. Recognize, first of all, that you are qualified to fulfill the Great Commission because of the grace of God which saved you. At some point He brought you under the conviction of sin and enabled you to understand His saving grace in Jesus Christ. As unworthy as you were, God chose to save you, not because of your own righteousness, but because of His grace.

2. Second, His grace called you according to the working of His power. There came a time when your will became submissive to what God was leading you to do, but you have not come to this point as a result of your own decision as if you simply chose to become a missionary. You were chosen by God's grace, and He would not let you do otherwise.

3. Third, God's grace determined His purpose for your life. You may be going to places you would never have dreamed of and perhaps have never heard of. You are going to fill a particular assignment that fits with your gifts and experience because that is who God made you to be. He shaped your life for this purpose through His grace. The location and assignment for your place in fulfilling the Great Commission is unique and distinct from others, but the purpose for which He has called you is the same. As Paul described that purpose, it is to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. Regardless of your assignment or job description, that is the purpose for which His grace has called you.

4. And finally, I want to remind you, that His grace will empower you for the task. It is not your own ability or ingenuity; not your competency, training, and skills. If you are to be used effectively in making Christ known, you must always be cognizant that it is due to His grace using your life as a channel of witness and power.

The apostle Paul was used mightily of God because he was constantly aware that he was totally dependent on God's grace. Note another word of testimony in 1 Corinthians 15:10, "But by God's grace I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not ineffective. However, I worked more than any of them, yet not I, but God's grace that was with me."

Paul's testimony in Galatians 2:19–20 is one of the most graphic and powerful expressions of the Christian experience. He proclaims, "I have been crucified with Christ; and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." On the basis of this he follows by saying, "I do not set aside the grace of God."

THE DANGER OF GOD'S GRACE BEING NULLIFIED

Grace is the undeserved favor of God. He has saved us and called us by His grace, through no merit of our own whatsoever. He promises to lead us and empower us by His grace; in fact, the life of Christ Himself is poured into ours to do it all—live our life for us. But note that it is highly possible that that grace may be in vain. It is not unlikely that you will get to the place where God has called you to impact a lost world and nullify the rich, abundant, free-flowing, powerful grace of God which is available to empower and use you.

That is not the grace of God which saved you—praise God that can't be nullified or canceled—but the grace of God which has chosen you and called you. The grace needed to make Christ known, and the grace that represents the spiritual power to transcend cultures and break through barriers of sin and pride can be forfeited. The power which Jesus promised with the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit equips you to be His witnesses. It is possible for all of that grace to be of no effect.

1. Failure to be focused and single-minded. First, you may render God's grace of no effect if you fail to be single-minded and totally devoted to the task to which God has called you. Satan will provide many diversions that will demand your time and attention. Many of them are good and worthwhile activities, but they will divert you from your primary purpose for being there of making Christ known. You will immediately get caught up in cultural adjustments and language learning; you will spend time and energy providing for the comforts and the needs of your family. You will be involved in committee meetings, fulfilling recreational needs, responding to the urgent demands around you; and one day you will realize there is no evidence of God's grace bringing lost souls to Jesus Christ.

2. Failure to persevere and be obedient. Second, you can nullify the grace of God by your failure to be obedient and persevere through times of difficulty and crisis. Be assured those times will come; they go with the territory. Life on the mission field will not be easy. There will be occasions when you wonder why you are there and question why you have subjected your family and children to such hardship. Perhaps you will not readily find acceptance and response; rejection and persecution should always be seen as a possibility.

Some time ago I counseled with a missionary family who had experienced a very frustrating first term and felt they could be used more effectively somewhere else. I agreed and began to discuss the options for an alternate assignment. They interrupted me and said, "But we want you to know that we are willing to return here." I was surprised, having assumed they were unwilling to face the same frustration and difficulties of another term, but they explained, "When we arrived and realized what we were up against, we had to reconcile ourselves to the fact that God had not called us to happiness or personal fulfillment but to obedience. And if this is where He wants us, we want to be obedient."

3. Failure to live a cleansed, pure life. Third, you can nullify the grace of God and render it of no effect by failure to live a cleansed, pure life. We don't like to talk about this, but there have been missionaries whose service has been in vain because they did not maintain a holy walk before the Lord. As missionary families pack their crate for overseas shipment, it seems that VCRs have become standard equipment. We justify that by our need for relaxation and diversion, for staying in touch with our American roots. But let me warn you that you don't subject your mind to the filth and garbage of contemporary society and entertainment without compromising the flow of God's grace. We are told that our bodies are the temple of the living God, and we are to separate ourselves, to cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. God expects you to walk in purity, not just physically abstaining from immoral indulgence and influence, but in spirit and attitude and in relationships lest His grace be in vain.

4. Failure to respond appropriately to adversity. Fourth, you can nullify the grace of God which He promised to make available by failing to respond appropriately to adversity. Every day we receive news of those among our global missionary family who have been afflicted with severe illness, injured in an accident, suffered the loss of a parent or loved one far away. There are those who live without electricity or in isolation from the supportive fellowship of Christian colleagues. You are joining this group, and you, too, will experience adversity. You can feel sorry for yourself, resent your circumstances, get angry with God, criticize the Foreign Mission Board, and nullify the grace of God that is available to see you through. Or you can respond in faith, learn what God is teaching you, rely upon His strength, and find His grace to be sufficient.

5. Failure to trust God and walk by faith. Finally, you can nullify the grace of God by failing to trust Him and, instead, following your own wisdom and understanding. Unfortunately, we don't have very accurate insights into the future due to our limited human vision. And that is how it should be. Proverbs 3:5–6 tells us, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths."

We must trust God, acknowledge His lordship, allow Him to lead in all our ways with assurance He will direct our paths and provide all the grace needed for the task to which He called us. We experience that grace for guidance only when we follow by faith.

Jonah 2:8 makes the observation, "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs" (NIV). We recognize the foolishness of forfeiting the precious grace of God for salvation by clinging to worthless idols. But let me urge you not to forfeit the abundant grace of God, which is sufficient for your every need and will empower you in witness and ministry. It would be equally foolish to forfeit God's grace by clinging to your own understanding and failing to trust God, by failing to respond in faith in times of adversity, by failing to live a cleansed, pure life, by failing to be obedient and single-minded in your commitment to God's will and calling.

You have been saved and called by God's grace. Don't nullify the grace He provides to carry out the Great Commission as you go in obedience to His call.

---

2

---

That They Would See Jesus

Luke 24:31

God has called every church and every believer to be obedient to the Great Commission. No one is exempt from the responsibility our Lord has given to His followers to make disciples of all nations. Truly a heart for the world should be reflected in our cooperative support in making Christ known to every people, tribe, tongue, and nation. The task is far from complete, and while God calls all of us to pray and to give, we should bring to Him a surrendered heart and readiness to go that a lost world would know God's love and come to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. God continues to call out those to plant their lives overseas among people who are lost in obedience to the Great Commission.

We must uphold the missionaries going in response to God's call with prayer and give to support their ministry and witness overseas. In God's divine providence they have a personal sense of call to the places to which they are being appointed. Some are going to highly responsive countries in Africa and Latin America such as Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Uganda, Venezuela, and Brazil. Others are going to impact the burgeoning population of Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Thailand, or to pioneer outreach among relatively untouched people groups in Central Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. A significant number are responding to the urgent call to seize the opportunity to impact Europe with the gospel in this era of transition.

Although they are filling a variety of assignments, all strategic to the total missions task, Luke 24:31 clearly defines the purpose for which these are being appointed tonight. This is the account of the resurrection appearance of Jesus to the two men on the road to Emmaus. Jesus had conversed with them throughout the journey about the events of the preceding days and how the Scriptures had explained the necessity of His death and resurrection. They did not know it was Jesus until they entered into a home and were dining. Jesus blessed the food, and the Scripture says, "Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him" (Luke 24:31).

That is why you are being commissioned tonight—that the eyes of a lost world might be opened, and they would recognize Jesus. You may be going to serve as teachers, as a doctor, hospital administrator, or in development work. Many of you will be filling the broad responsibilities of a church and home assignment. But the reason you are going to places such as Ghana, Mali, Romania, Belarus, and Serbia is so that the eyes of a lost world will be opened, and they will see Jesus.

Some of you are going to the Buddhist countries of Asia where people believe that the goal and destiny of their soul will be realized as a result of good works. The spires of Buddhist pagodas, ornate temples, and spirit houses attest to the prolific devotion to a misguided philosophy, which fails to comprehend that the soul that sins shall die (Rom. 3:23). These are a beautiful, hospitable and gracious people, who believe their eternal destiny is determined by their own good works. But the futility of their religious traditions are evident when one attends a funeral and observes the saffron-robed priests encircling the casket, chanting, "Dead, never to arise; asleep never to awaken; gone never to return." They see Jesus as a great teacher and philosopher, but God has called you to open their eyes that they might recognize Jesus as none other than the unique, glorified Son of God, the Savior of the world.

Others will be witnessing among the Hindu masses of South Asia who know Jesus as only one among their millions of deities. You will be overwhelmed by the multitudes and the density of population where more than a billion people live in a land area approximately one-third the size of the United States. As you respond with compassion in ministry and witness to the needs, you genuinely want to relieve the suffering of this mass of humanity. But the compelling reason you go is so that their eyes would be opened to recognize Jesus as "the way, the truth, and the life," declaring that "no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6 KJV).

There are those in these Hindu areas who will readily respond to your witness and accept Jesus but add Him to their pantheon of gods. They are delighted to find a potential Savior to relieve them of the endless cycle of reincarnations imposed as retribution for deeds in a former life. But their eyes, blinded to the truth, need to be opened to see Jesus as the unique, sinless Son of God who alone died for the sins of the world.

You are going to places in the Middle East and North Africa where 950 million Muslims have been resistant to the Christian message; they recognize Jesus as a prophet but nothing more. The cry from minarets reverberates throughout the countryside, calling the people to prayer to affirm their belief there is but one God...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13
• Chapter 14
• Chapter 15
• Chapter 16
• Chapter 17
• Chapter 18
• Chapter 19
• Chapter 20
• Chapter 21
• Chapter 22
• Chapter 23
• Chapter 24
• Chapter 25
• Chapter 26
• Chapter 27
• Chapter 28
• Chapter 29
• Chapter 30
• Chapter 31
• Chapter 32
• Chapter 33
• Chapter 34
• Chapter 35
• Chapter 36