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Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland
  Orange Standard

The Great Commission

Article 3 ~ February 2006

 

"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Mark 16:15.

These were the last words Jesus spoke to His disciples as He left them on Ascension Day.

There is an old legend that after His ascension He was asked by the Archangel Gabriel what He had done to ensure the continuance of His work on earth. "Have you left your disciples a manual of instructions?" Jesus answered "No". "Or a programme of action?" again "No." "What have you left them?" Jesus replied: "I have left eleven men, my church, and they shall work for me in the world."

Phillips Brooks said of this: "Jesus taught His truth to a few men, and then he said, Now go and tell that truth to other men."

That was the task of the disciples of Jesus and it is the duty of His followers ever since, to preach, teach and tell the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Saviour of mankind to bring them to faith in Him and into a relationship with God through Him.

The early church realised that responsibility upon it. We have the evidence of that in the New Testament account of the growth of the faith through the testimony of the first Christians.

They spoke, worked and lived for Christ and others were added to their number and they founded churches to ensure that Christians together in each place would obey their Lord's command to win people for Him.

To evangelise, to missionise, to win people for Christ is the primary, essential, ministry of the church. The economic maxim "export or die" has a Christian application for the church must grow, increase its influence, affect the thinking and doing of people or it will die.

That happened where the church, for whatever reason, ceased to live because it did not grow in numbers and strength. The need to grow is inherent in Christianity for the good news of Jesus Christ must be shared. This happens where the church is alive, active, influential and consequential. It happens when Christians individually and collectively, determine to bring people to faith in Christ.

Church growth is not the responsibility only of ministers, leaders and church workers, it is the charge of all believers. This because "the Christian holds the knowledge of God's love in Jesus Christ in trust for those who are still without it."

Jesus said: "Go and preach". Preaching is integral to the witness and work of the church but the word has the more inclusive sense of talking and living the faith, and that is to be done by every believer.

What the Christian has to share is well described in the foundation statement of the Church Missionary Society in 1799.

"Of all the blessings which God has bestowed upon mankind, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest. It is the sovereign remedy for all the evils of life, and the source of the most substantial and durable benefits."

Our world changes but it has stayed the same in that our problems were those of all who have gone before us, for humanity's needs, the basics of life remain the same. It is just that the focus, and especially in the western world, is secular, materialistic, as never before.

The danger for the church is in accepting the situation and not ensuring that the Christian message is being presented to people vigorously, determinedly and believably. That is the message that can remake a person and head society in a better direction.

The church in a secular society is faced with competition for the lives of people. And if that is unequal, for the church does not offer them the things available from other sources, it has what meets the needs of people as it has met the needs of all sorts and conditions of men and women for two thousand years. What is really important in life - peace of mind and contentment of soul, is on offer from Christ.

It was the American economist, Irving Kristol, who said: "A secular state cannot prosper - indeed, cannot survive - in an entirely secular society. Families and churches are the two institutions that make for inter-generational activity."

This means that the society in which we live needs the Christian faith and the kind of people the faith produces when they are by character and conduct true to Christ.

And everywhere when the faith has affected the lives of people it has been advantageous to them in every way. It affects their thinking and doing to govern their relationships one with another. Christianity is at its best when it is at its most practical. Douglas Webster said: "It is the fashionable thing today to be concerned about human rights. The greatest human right is to hear of the Saviour and to know what He has done."

Rev. Canon Dr. S.E. Long

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