GO IN THE AUTHORITY
OF CHRIST
In Matthew 28, Christ expresses His commission:
“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 everything
I have commanded you.”
Many times, as the Church, we hear this and look to fervently take on Christ’s mission.
Yet, perhaps our urgency is misplaced—perhaps our fervor is more of a false start. As quickly as we move, very soon Christ’s mission becomes our own. We own the methods, we own the move, we own the mission.
We lose sight of the ‘CO’ in Christ’s mission.
To fully recognize what is Christ’s commission, one must hear, carefully, the words that preceded His commission.
The scriptures tell us that
“Jesus came near and
said to them, ‘All authority
has been given to me
in heaven and on earth.’”
Therefore, to GO, we must go in the authority of Christ and not in our own authority.
No matter the skillfulness of our marketing, the mission will fall flat and be of no effect if we do not go in the authority of Christ.
This is not something we give ourselves.
The authority of Christ is only available through His nearness—and no, we do not draw Christ through our own fervor or own demand.
Jesus comes near.
Note the words of scripture: “Jesus came near…”
The scripture, then, tells us that after Jesus came near, “Jesus…said to them…”
What we witness next, here in scripture, is Christ’s power that comes from waiting on the authority of Christ.
Christ’s authority institutes the GO. It ensures that the GO never stops.
It is the inexhaustible “riches in Christ” [Ephesians 3:8] that distinguish the unsurpassed authority of Christ, which perpetuates the unrelenting gospel of Christ.
This is Christ, the Word, in full effect—Christ speaks and the Church responds.
Just as Christ, the Word, provokes every believer to obedience at the point of salvation—and just as Christ, the Word, the source of all creation, produced all that exists—Christ, the Word, said and so we GO.
This is the ‘CO’ in Christ’s commission and it is Christ’s ‘CO’ that ensures the Church’s GO.
Therefore, “I pray that the eyes of
your heart may be enlightened so
that you may know what is the hope
of his calling, what is the wealth of
his glorious inheritance in the saints,
and what is the immeasurable
greatness of his power toward us
who believe, according to the mighty
working of his strength.” [Ephesians 1:18]