THE GREAT COMMISSION: TEACHING Mount Hermon, August 27, 2006

On 24 October 1992, the leaders of our mother church, Mount Carmel, gathered to plan for what was known as “Carmel 2000.” Thirty-five leaders were there: Session members, pastoral staff, cell group leaders, and Sunday School teachers. Because they met at a condominium along West Coast Road called “Westpeak,” the result of the planning retreat was called “The Westpeak Declaration.” Part of it read:

“As a people under the authority of Jesus Christ who commissioned us, ‘Go and make disciples of all nations’ (Matthew 28.19), we commit ourselves to work towards the twin goals of bringing the lost into his kingdom and of building them up in faith…. Our call is for conversion growth, not just transfer and biological growth. Our call is for disciples, not just converts.”

Well, the year 2000 had come and gone. Mount Carmel had grown. Many people were brought into God’s kingdom, and many have been built up in faith.

What about us, here at Mount Hermon, the daughter church (or as we like to call ourselves, a sister church) of Mount Carmel? Though we are different churches, we come under the same authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. His commission or command to us is the same:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising 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 28.18-20).

Let me say a few things quickly about this commission, known to us as the “Great Commission.”

1. The commission is the last command of Jesus. In Matthew, these verses are the final verses of the Gospel. In different forms, the command is recorded in the Gospels of Mark, Luke and John. The last wishes or instructions of a person are always the most important and they are meant to be honoured and kept. This last command of Jesus is of the first importance to us.

2. The commission is bracketed by two promises. Every command of the Lord comes with a promise. Jesus does not ask us to do something without also promising to help us do it. That is why the commission is not only verse 19—it is also verse 18 and verse 20. The promise before the command is “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore…” We keep the command, bearing the authority of our Lord.

The promise after the command is “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” We keep the command, knowing the Lord is with us. Notice each promise—before and after the commission—has the word “all” in it: all authority, and all ways (always). Jesus has all authority and he is with us always.

3. The commission has one key verb. The way it is translated in our English Bible gives the impression there are several key actions or verbs: go, make disciples, baptise, teach. In the original Greek language, the commission has only one thrust, one main action. It is the verb “make disciples.” The other verbs are what we call “participles.” Participles are words ending with “ing” and they accompany the main verb.

For example, I say, “Standing at this pulpit, I preach the Word of God.” The main action here is “preach.” The accompanying verb, the participle is “standing.” Or, your wife may say to you, “Coming back from work, buy a loaf of bread.” What your wife wants you to do is “buy a loaf of bread’ and you do it while coming home from work.

One way to translate the commission to bring out its original sense is: “going, make disciples, baptising, teaching.” In this way, going, baptising and teaching are accompanying verbs, they are meant to accomplish one thing: make disciples. Well, that is an English/Greek lesson of the day. If you don’t understand all this, it’s okay: just remember the most important part of the commission is “make disciples.” We will see how important this is as we go along.

Now that we have understood the importance of the commission (it is the last command of Jesus), the promises behind the commission (Jesus promises us both his authority and presence) and the main thrust of the commission (make disciples), let us move on.

Today we want to focus on the part of the commission that says, “and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Bear in mind this part supports the main command which is “make disciples.” How do we make disciples? By teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded us.

Jesus taught many things to his disciples during the three years he was with them. Matthew recorded many of these teachings. But of all the teachings, the bulk of them are found in three chapters of Matthew, chapters 5 to 7. These chapters are sometimes called Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

It takes its name from 5.1-2: “Now when [Jesus] saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and saw down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them…” Jesus taught his disciples on a mountainside, and so we have the Sermon on the Mount. For our purpose today, we will skip through the three chapters, and look at the closing verses of Matthew 7.

Matthew 7.24-27 [Read]. Jesus concluded his teaching by stating that there are only two ways we can respond to his teaching. We can choose to put his teaching into practice or we can choose not to do so. In other words, we can obey or we can disobey the teaching of our Lord. In the final commission, Jesus calls on us to make disciples by teaching them to obey. Not just to teach, to teach so that we obey the teaching. Obedience is crucial to the teaching of Jesus. Jesus did not teach merely to inform us, to enlarge our reservoir of knowledge. Jesus did not teach merely to entertain us, to make us feel good for the moment.

Jesus taught the disciples to change them, to transform them—this can only happen with obedience to his teaching. It can only happen when we put the teaching into practice. Then we are like the wise person who built his house on the rock.

Building a house on the rock is going to take hard work. The other person, the foolish person, who built his house on sand, has an easier job. Digging into sand is not as difficult as digging into rock.

Also, the one who builds on the rock is going to work longer hours, take a longer time. The one building on sand could get his house up more quickly. Yes, between the two of them, the rock person is going to work harder and longer; the sand person will have it easy.

But according to Jesus, the test comes when a storm arises: the rain comes down and the floods come up. The house on the sand collapses, while the house on the rock stands firm.

It may be good for us to ask ourselves at this point if we are the wise or the foolish builder, if we are building our house on rock or on sand, if we are building our lives on a foundation that stands or a foundation that falls.

The storms of life can come in many forms: a sudden illness, a financial setback, a break-up in a relationship, failure in studies or career, retrenchment. When any one of these things hits us, will we stand?

More importantly, when we come to the end of our life, as we prepare to meet our Creator and Judge, will what we have spent our whole life building stand up to the scrutiny of our God?

HEARING IS NOT ENOUGH

Jesus makes it very clear when he says, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice…” Hearing is not enough. What we hear has to be put into practice.

Hearing something can give us a false illusion of having done it. The two things could not be farther apart. Hearing something and doing something are two entirely different things.

Let me give you an example. Say, one day, I wake up feeling strange. My heart is beating faster than usual. I am panting like I have been running in my sleep. I feel a tightness around my chest. So I go to see a doctor. He tells me that I am suffering from heart palpitation. I am breathless because my body is running out of oxygen. The tightness around my chest may be a sign that the arteries to my heart may be blocked.

So I say to the doctor, “That’s very interesting—I never knew all these things before.” The doctor tells me, “I recommend we do some tests on you. Meanwhile, you need some medication.”

But I say, “No, doctor, I don’t need all these. Now I know what’s wrong with me, I feel so much better.” Then you go away without doing anything the doctor tells you. Do you think you will get better—just because you heard what the doctor’s diagnosis of your condition?

Of course, not! You have only heard. It may sound interesting. It may give you some insight into your condition—but it has done nothing to change it.

We can spend years listening to the preaching of God’s Word, the teaching of God’s Word, but until we do something about applying what we learn, putting into practice what we hear—we are just like a sick person who hears about his diagnosis and thinks he is therefore healed.

Hearing is not enough. Hearing with our ears is not enough.

SAYING IS NOT ENOUGH

Secondly, Jesus tells us that saying with our lips is also not enough: Matthew 7.21-23 [Read]. This passage is one of the most sobering passages in the Bible: we can say all the right things and still be wrong.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (7.21).

Again, the contrast is made. We have seen that hearing something is different from doing something. Here, saying something is different from doing it.

The test is in the doing—not in the hearing, nor in the saying. It is not enough to say, “Lord, Lord.” The people who call Jesus “Lord” are capable of prophesying in Jesus’ name, driving out demons in Jesus’ name, performing miracles. But despite all these impressive works, Jesus will say to them, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evil-doers!”

Jesus calls them “evil-doers”: not only did they not do the will of God, they do the will of the Evil One. While they perform all kinds of miracles, their lives are such that they do reflect the will of the Father in heaven.

Unfortunately, the world today still have such people around: on the surface, they impress the public with their show of spectacular miracles, but below the surface, their lives are far from godly.

Jim Baker, the American TV evangelist, ran the popular “Praise the Lord” programmes that attracted millions of viewers. He was convicted of financial fraud, and spent time in prison during which time he wrote a book titled, “I Was Wrong.”

We can say the right words, and still live lives that are wrong. Profession with lips alone is not enough. Our words must lead to deeds. Our words must be backed by our deeds. There must be a consistency between the two.

Just as listening to something gives us an illusion of doing it, so saying something also gives us an illusion of having done it.

A few years ago, I watched a very impressive presentation by someone who was outlining plans for his area of responsibility. He had just joined the organisation and was spelling out the goals he had for the region he represented.

The visuals he used, the graphs and numbers, the pictures and animation—they were among the best I have ever seen. In the end, he received enthusiastic applause from the audience. Someone sitting next to me said, “Very good—but let’s see how he translates that in action.”

Sure enough, when he did a report the following year, we saw that while he had spoken with passion and enthusiasm, there was very little to show in terms of what was actually done. Sometimes, I feel that we spend so much time talking about what we want to do that we are too exhausted to actually do it!

I once heard the advice of someone who had been in the ministry for a long time. His counsel was: don’t talk about it till you have done it. He said, “The more you talk about something, the more you deceived yourself into thinking that you have done it.”

I found that to be true. We need to talk less in order to do more.

Calling Jesus “Lord, Lord” means nothing if it is not translated into his Lordship in our lives.

Let me sum up what I have said so far.

1. Hearing is not enough. We are to hear and put into practice. We are to hear and obey.
2. Saying is not enough. We are to follow our words with deeds. What we say, we make sure we do.

Hearing with our ears is not enough, neither is saying with our lips. We must obey what we hear, and do what we say—only then will we go from ears and lips, to hearts and lives.

TEACHING IS NOT ENOUGH

Let me apply these two warnings from Matthew 7 to what Jesus commands us to do in Matthew 28, viz. to make disciples by teaching them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded us.

Note that even teaching is not enough. Jesus makes it clear it is “teaching to obey” or teaching that results in obedience.

Teaching that is merely addressing the ears is not enough. Of course, we have to begin with the ears. We have to speak to the ears, but we need to address the hearts of our hearers. When we teach, we are not only informing people of God’s truths—we are challenging them to do something about it!

Similarly, teaching that merely results in knowing the right things and saying the right things is not enough. I remember when I was in school we had a teacher who just wanted us to give him back whatever he taught—regardless of whether we understood it or not.

If we could “vomit” back to him what he gave us, he thought he had done his job. No wonder someone said that ““Education is the transfer of knowledge from the teacher to the student without passing through the brain of either.”

That is not teaching.

Let me address those of us involved in teaching—whether in school, church or home. You may be a kindergarten teacher or university lecturer, a Sunday School teacher or a Covenant Group leader, a mother teaching your child or a supervisor teaching your staff—teaching must always result in a change in attitude and behaviour.

You have not taught unless your student has learned. If there is no change in the student’s life, no change for the better, you have not taught at all.

This is more so when we are talking about the last commission of Jesus—to make disciples by teaching them to obey all that Jesus taught us.

STEPS TO OBEDIENCE

I have worked out the following six steps essential to obedience.

1. Hearing
2. Understanding
3. Deciding
4. Remembering
5. Doing
6. Persisting

Let me quickly say something about each step. Those of you who have heard me speak on this before, treat this as a revision.

1. Hearing: This is usually the first step. We begin by listening to the Word of God as it is taught or preached or read.

2. Understanding. Unless we understand what we hear, everything will stop here. Some teachers make things so complicated that we go away puzzled and confused. To be responsible teachers, we need to make things plain and simple.

3. Deciding. Every time we teach, we need to press for a verdict, a decision to do something. The truths of God’s Word are not for us to play or toy with—they are life if we obey and death if we disobey. So we need to bring our hearers to a decision, to do something.

4. Remembering. This is often the missing link in obedience. We all have short memories. Within 24 hours, we would have forgotten 80-90% of what we have heard (for some, 100%). As teachers, we have to make our teaching simple and memorable—if we cannot remember it, how can we put it into practice.

5. Doing. This is no longer the role of the teacher, but the responsibility of the student. No one can do it for you—you have to do it yourself. Unless we reach this stage, we cannot say we have obeyed the Lord.

6. Persisting. I have added one more step. That is because when we seek to obey the Lord, we will face opposition or resistance. It could be from people, from the devil or from our sinful self. Doing the right thing is no guarantee it will be easy—that is why persistence in doing is the final step in obedience.

CONCLUSION

We began today about looking at the Great Commission of Jesus, his last command to his disciples. The thrust of that Commission is to make disciples. One way of doing it is by teaching. We have noted that it is not just teaching but teaching that leads to obedience.

Obedience is important to us, first of all as disciples of Jesus. We need to hear and obey. Hearing is not enough; we need to put what we hear into practice. We also need to do what we say. Saying the right things is not enough—we need to do them.

Obedience is also important to us as teachers. When we teach, we want to touch and change lives. This can only come about if we aim to teach so that our students will obey the Lord. It is teaching that results in doing, not just hearing and saying.

I have given some bad examples in my message. Let me close with a good example. I have a teacher in Primary School who taught me when I was in Primary 5 and 6. For two years, she taught us. She was the one who gave me the love for the English language. If you enjoy reading what I write, thank my teacher who first taught me good English.

She also gave me a love for stories. After our exams, she would take time to read us stories. I first heard the story of “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexander Dumas from her.

I was also fascinated by some other stories she told, for example, one about a young man who was sold by his brothers to slave traders, who later became a powerful ruler and forgave his brothers for what they did. I asked my teacher where she got these stories from, and she said. “It is from a book called The Holy Bible.”

That was when I became interested, and enrolled in a Bible correspondence course. Through the course, I came to know Jesus and have followed him ever since. My teacher taught me in such a way that it made a difference in my life. Now I want to teach so that my teaching will touch, challenge and change lives.

More than that, we want to make disciples by our teaching—first by our own obedience to the teaching of Jesus, and then, by teaching others to obey all that Jesus has taught us. Amen.


David W. F. Wong
www.owlnook.com