The Great Commission

The Great Commission

“Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.  When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.  
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” 
Matthew 28:16-20.
Here is the commission given by Jesus to his disciples and passed on to us. It is something many people of other faiths do not like. Yet it is the most important part of Christianity.
Christianity is if you think about it evangelical Judaism. The Jews were the first to worship the one true God creator of the universe by faith.
For thousands of years they kept that faith. They followed by faith the one true God. The writer of Hebrews saying,
“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.  
By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.  
For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 
By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.  
And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. 
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.  
People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.  
If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.  
Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." 
                                                                           Hebrews 11:8-16.
This is what we as Christians are proclaiming. We believe one must have faith in the one true God. That we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ. It is the same faith Abraham and the Jewish patriarchs had.
I believe God’s plan all along was for the world to know Him on a personal level that’s why at just the right time Christ came into this world.
We who believe in Jesus want every individual in the world to know that they can meet God on a personal level.
We believe its only through faith in Jesus Christ that one can enter heaven. Paul writing to the Ephesians wrote,
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast.” 
                                                                      Ephesians 2:8,9
Salvation and eternal life with God are a gift from God through Jesus Christ.
It is as if God placed a free meal for us to have. A banquet that is free to all who will come. All we have to do is partake.
The decision is up to us. To believe that Jesus is the Christ, the one and only Son of God who takes away our sins, or he is not.
The choice is always left to the individual.
The choice is yours.
John writes,
“Yet to all who received him,(Jesus) to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—  children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God."
                                      John 1:12,13
Jesus himself make things clear saying,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son." 
                                                                                                          John 3:16-18
He also said,
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 
         John 14:6
These statements are bold and I know controversial but they never the less are what Jesus taught His disciples and it is what Christians today believe.
Think about it.