The story of legendary coach Vince Lombardi tells of the speech that started each season to both rookies and veterans. “Boys, this is a football.” The point, clear, and the coaching record speaks for itself. Fundamentals are what win football games. You will never be better than your fundamentals.
In a way, this clarifies for the church where we have gone astray, fundamentals. So what is the football?
In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus came and said to his disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
What is the commission? Make Disciples.
Before we start making disciples we need to know the why. Jesus said, simply, it is me. In order to understand the commission to make disciples, we require the whole of the scripture. Jesus taught nothing new. In fact, he only stated plainly what the Old Testament said. The story led to the convergence of authority in heaven and on earth in one man, the God-Man, Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
Jesus Christ, the God-Man, has authority in heaven. He has the authority in heaven because he is God. Jesus’ response to the Pharisees in John 8 illustrates, “Before Abraham was, I Am.” John chapter one says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. . . and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
Colossians 1 says of Jesus, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”
Hebrews 1 says of him, “but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.”
The scriptures make abundantly clear that Jesus Christ is God. But to drive the point further and demonstrate how Christ has received the authority in heaven take a look at Philippians.
In Philippians 2 the scriptures say of Christ, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Jesus Christ has been highly exalted because he completed the work for which the Father sent him. God the Father stamped his approval on Christ at the resurrection declaring once and for all that the work was finished. Therefore all authority in heaven has been given to him.
But also notice that the gospel, the story of Christ’s life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension, along with all of gospel’s implications have made him the authority on earth. It is easier to conceive of Jesus’ authority in heaven since he is God, but he was also fully man. Let’s go back to Genesis where the Great Commission finds its roots.
In Genesis 1:26-27 the scriptures say, “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
In creation Adam, with you and I, find our purpose, namely to bear the image of God. In a word, worship. We were designed to reflect and point to the glory of God through demonstrating, finitely of course, the characteristics of God in us. God is love, so we can love. God is creator so we can be creative and much, much more.
Then in the same chapter verse 28 the scriptures say, “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it,” Man was commissioned to fill the earth with the glory of God. When Adam and Eve had children, they, as fellow image bearers, were to spread across the planet so the whole earth would be filled with the glory of God.
But Adam was also given authority over the earth. Yes, he was told to subdue it, or to have dominion over it. Yet, as the story goes, Adam sinned and traded the glory of God for the glory of self. Sin’s curse wrecked what God said was very good.
Skip ahead to Romans 5 where Paul writes, “Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the one “man” through whom grace will abound to many because he did what Adam failed to do. Since therefore, Jesus Christ was a man, he had the same commission upon his life as did the first man, Adam. Jesus was to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and he was to have dominion over the earth.
When Jesus was asked by Nicodemus how a man could enter the kingdom of God, Jesus replied, “Unless a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” We must be born of the water and the Spirit. Christ gives new birth. Christ gives new life. 2 Corinthians 5, “Behold old things pass away and all things become new.” In this way Christ is fruitful and multiplies. (He did not have physical children, Dan Brown)
When we look at the final chapter of the story, John says in Revelation 7, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
From all the earth we see a picture of those whose new life in Christ is celebrated around the throne of their Savior, Jesus Christ. He is filling the earth with image bearers through the power of the gospel. He is doing exactly what Adam could not do because of sin.
Christ overcame the world. He has dominion over the world. As earlier in Philippians, he has been given the name above every name. At the name of Jesus everyone in heaven and on earth will bow.
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” As a follower of Christ we are given life and are being renewed into the image of our creator. We follow Christ, the God/Man, to accomplish the will of the Father. Jesus said in John 5, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.”
Christ has all authority on earth because He, as the perfect man unlike Adam, lived a perfect life, yet died a sinner’s death and was declared king of kings at the resurrection from the dead. He brings new birth to all who believe in him, thus fulfilling perfectly the command of God, to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. In Christ, the mission of God, to display his glory in all the earth, finds its completion.
Since Christ is living and doing perfectly what he, as a man, was sent by the Father to do, then you and I are to be as Christ and do as Christ commands. Therefore at FBC Roswell we seek to glorify Christ by making disciples of all nations. We are simply joining what God has already accomplished in Christ.
“This is a football.” – Make Disciples who fill the earth with worship of God. There is nothing greater or more pressing.
The question then remains. How to we make disciples? And What is a disciple?
The Backyard Missionary 