JMA Missions Mid-Month January 2025
The Great Commission in the New Testament Series, 2025
The Great Commission in Ephesians
Ephesians 2:19-22, 19"Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."
We are picking up where we left off last year, identifying the Great Commission in each book of the New Testament. Sometimes it is easily identifiable, and other times it is hiding in plain sight, as it were. In most of the epistles, we can see the Great Commission lived out, and the effective results of the Commission are proclaimed. Which is basically what we see in the book of Ephesians.
It is unclear who was the first to arrive in Ephesus to preach the Gospel. Paul came in Acts 18, Apollos was there also, and so were Priscilla and Aquilla. Then, Paul came back and started a Bible School in Acts 19 for two years. Later, Timothy came, and so did the Apostle John.
It is interesting to note that whoever that first missionary was, Paul gives credit for the preaching the Gospel to the Lord Himself. Ephesians 2:17, "And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near." This is awesome, because it references us back to Mark's Great Commission, in ch16:20, "And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen."
This is the way we need to view our part of the Great Commission. It is not our name that anybody needs to know. It is not our 'ministry' or our organization name that will be remembered. It is not our fabulous Bible College, or our oratory skills, or our anything.
It is Him. It is Jesus' name. He preached, not me. He saved and healed, not me. He put the fabulous in Bible College, not me. And the results are correspondent to the true Source. When the true and effective spiritual power of God is at work, He transforms the lives of people, of those in Ephesus and those today.
And Paul goes on:
(v13) We were brought near by His blood, and (v14) He is our peace. (v15) He made Jew and Gentile to be a new man in Him, and (v18) at the cross He reconciled both Jew and Gentile to God (v16), and through Him we have access to the Father. The Great Commission is not about the missionary, it's all about the Great Commissioner!
The passage I highlighted at the beginning has to do with the end goal of the Great Commission, and our inheritance in Him. It bears reading again, out loud if you can.
Ephesians 2:19-22, 19"Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."
This is far deeper than making converts to a religion, ya'll! This is life change on a level that mortal man is powerless to reach without the active participation of the Great Commissioner! When the Great Commissioner works with us, and He confirms the word through the accompanying signs, and the lives of people are transformed, then they become 'fellow citizens with the saints, and members of the household of God'.
That's Kingdom, ya'll!!
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