Journeys of a Former Firebrand

So…how important are Jesus’ last words to His disciples? Some say His command to evangelize the world (Matthew 28: 19-20) isn’t for us today. Others don’t see it as their gift.

Do these words apply to us today? Should we obey the Great Commission? When considering this question, we need to keep a few things in mind…

1. His last words weren’t given only to the twelve. Matthew tells us that there were some who saw Him who didn’t believe He had actually risen. The Bible says the Twelve believed without exception (actually there were only eleven left.) cf. Matthew 28:17

2. Those who obeyed Jesus’ command to stay in Jerusalem (which was given at the same time as the Great Commission) were many more than twelve. The command to evangelize goes further than just the Twelve. cf. Acts chapters 1-2

3. The command to baptize was given at the same time as the command to evangelize. Nowhere else is this command invoked. If we obey the command to baptize without complaint, we ought to engage in evangelism as well.

4. You don’t need the gift of evangelism to evangelize. If that were true, the Twelve were in trouble…they were Apostles…not evangelist!