Get the Flock Out part 1

Posted by Christian St John in Faithblogs | 0 comments

[audio:GetTheFlockOut1.mp3|titles=Get The Flock Out part 1|artists=Christian St John]
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If you look up the word “go” on dictionary.com you will see that there are almost 100 definitions pertaining to that one small word. Some of these definitions include: to leave a place, to depart, to keep or be in motion, or to act as specified.

In the Bible the word “go” is used many times in many ways, but for the point of this article I want to briefly look at the word as meaning to leave a place and to act as specified.

In Jonah 1:2 God told the prophet Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach against it. In the beginning Jonah tried to run away from God’s call on his life but God eventually persuaded him. In Exodus 9:1 God told Moses to go to Egypt and confront Pharaoh. And he went even though it seemed that everything was against him and his mission was doomed from the beginning.

One of my favourite examples is when Abraham, living in the land of Ur, is told by God to leave his land, friends and relatives and to “go to a land I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). Just imagine the faith it took for Abraham to gather all his possessions and leave his family and friends and not even know where he was going!” He trusted God, and left simply because God told him to go.

Fast forward many thousands of years and God is still telling his children to go. In fact one of the last things recorded in Scripture that Jesus said was a command for all believers to “go” – “God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.” (Matt.28:19-20 The Message)

It has been widely accepted that the mission of the church, the Body of Christ, is to “Go and make disciples.” (Matt. 28:19) The Greek word that is here translated as “go” literally has the meaning of going out and scholars agree that from this we can conclude that what is recorded in Matthew 28:19 is a “command involving a clear sense of mission” (from the Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament).

My question from all of this then is if we are commanded by none other than Jesus himself to go out on a mission to make disciples why, for the most part, do we sit on our backsides doing nothing? I sometimes get the sense that many believers view what Jesus said in Matthew 28:19-20 as a suggestion… an “if you like I have something for you to do to while away your time here on planet earth” type suggestion. Personally I think nothing could be further from the truth.

If we go back just one verse to Matt. 28:18 we see that “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to (Jesus).” Take a moment to think about that and take it in. Jesus is saying “I’m in charge.” Given that he says this seconds before he says “Go and make disciples” means that he is establishing his importance to establish the importance of the mission…Jesus first establishes his importance to show us how important the mission is that he is sending us out on.

Jesus saved the best ‘til last. He has done what he had to do and now with help from the Holy Spirit it’s down to us. I’ll leave you today with some lyrics from the song Who Will Save the Children by Randy Stonehill:

We are His hands, We are His voice,
We are the ones who must make the choice,
And if it isn’t now, tell me when?
If it isn’t you, then tell me who will save (God’s) children?

Next time: I will continue to look at Matthew 28:19 and ask the question what does going look like?

Christian St John M.Div, BChM, ACS
July, 2009