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The Great Commission
Victor Choudhrie
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Sermon Summary
The sermon focuses on the Great Commission as outlined in Matthew 28:18-20, emphasizing the sender as Jesus who holds all power, the operational aspect of 'go' as a command to make disciples of all nations, baptize them, teach obedience, and equip believers. The importance of immediate action, transformation, and fulfilling the Great Commission through personal evangelism and discipleship is highlighted.
Sermon Transcription
The Great Commission. Anybody else? Anybody else? Matthew 24, 14, and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come. So what is this one, the first one he mentioned from Matthew 28, 18-20, he called his 11 disciples and he said to them, all power in heaven and earth has been given to me, therefore, Great Commission starts from there, therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them all that I have commanded you and go on with you till the end of the age. So first of all, who is the sender, Jesus is the sender, who has all power in heaven and earth. So, your real sender is Jesus, you will find an organization or a church or somebody, a sponsor to send you, but the sender is Jesus, you have to remember, who has all the power, we go in all power and authority when we go. If we go, if we presume that the organization is sending us, then we go only in the power, limited power and authority, that the organization gives us. So we always have to remember, sender is Jesus, number one. Number two is, the operational part is, go, number one is go, if you say no, I don't want to go, well, the deal is over, Abraham, you have to leave your country, your loved ones, your relatives, your property, everybody else and you go to Canaan, I promise you Canaan, where is Canaan, he has no idea, my uncles and aunties and my mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters and my sheep and my, all the animals and property is here, I don't know where Canaan is, no idea, why should I go, deal would be over, he says, ok Lord, if you say so, I go, so everybody who is called, has to go. So actually the original Great Commission is, as you go, as you go, make disciples. So wherever you happen to be going, you are going to work or commuting or in work site or in the market place or wherever, except for church, you can make disciples, you can't make disciples there, all nations, how many nations are there in the world, 24,000 nations and the 4,000 belongs to India, 4,635 to be accurate and the number is growing, of which only about 8,000 nations have been reached, not fully, just and 97% of the tithes and offerings and gifts from the churches go to those who have already heard the Gospel, 97%. So all nations has huge implications, all these five components that we hear in the Great Commission, the center is Jesus, operational part is go, if you don't go, deal is over, number two, all nations is all nations, so get the big picture from the beginning, otherwise this is my church and you get limited there in the four walls, keep thinking, we have reached the 24,000, you don't have to reach it yourself, but you facilitate in such a way that the process is set, so that all nations will get there, 97% of the wealth of the church is being spent on all those who have already been reached, leaving only 3% for the, who says, if you say I want to go and reach out, somebody unreached, nobody will give you money, it's very difficult to get money for the unreached and unengaged, unreached or unreached, this thing called unengaged, when we say unengaged, we mean there is nobody working there, those we say reached also does not mean they are completely reached, it just means some work is going on there, there are tens of millions of people who are in the engaged group, reached group, who are still to hear the gospel, like India, so as a Christian we are called to have the big picture first, and they are taught from childhood, we give them some puzzles for children to play with, although they are picking up small pieces, but they have the idea that I've got to get the big picture now, and you add this, add that, add that, ah, I got it, but Christians, you know, we are sort of saying, no, focus on your church and stay there, that's where the whole problem, you lose the picture, so stay focused on the big picture, although you start in some corner, but the picture you have to know is, you have to reach the whole picture, so you say, okay, 24,000 nations, how many are you reaching, how many are you reaching, how many are you reaching, you know, try and find out, okay, so between us we got 100 nations, it's not the same place we are going, so you go to your meeting, you come to my meeting and let's be happy together, that's not, so whether we are preaching, whether we are teaching, whether we are planting churches, crusades or conventions or whatever we are doing, the objective is to reach the 24,000 nations, and if that particular event is not doing it, then we want to get out of that one, so 24,000 nations, 4,635 nations in India, and they, you know, this ethnic group basically, but there are sub-castes, some of them, just saying Hindu doesn't mean anything, there are so many different, say, just saying Muslim, there are 50 different varieties of Muslims who don't talk to each other, no, no, they kill each other, Shias and Sunnis, Ahmadiyas, Quraish, a whole lot of them, so give the big picture, the Great Commission gives us the big picture, there's ethnic group, the ta-ethne is the Greek word, so basically that's what, but in Indian context we always say the caste system, because that's so easy to work with, it doesn't mean caste system, it means ethnic groups, so tribals are different ethnic groups, Banjaras are different ethnic groups, Brahmins are different ethnic groups, Muslims are different ethnic groups, but finally it's easier for us to work, because that's quantified already, so center is Jesus, operational part is go, make, do what, preach the kingdom or what do you, what is your, what are you supposed to do, make disciples, don't go and preach and come back, make disciples, there are two different games, all the people sitting in the church are Christians and they are preached to, they are lectured to, but they have never been disciple and therefore they cannot make disciples, if you tell a good Christian who has been attending a church for 5 years, 10 years, 20 years and he says go and make disciples, he says excuse me, I don't know how to make a disciple, I can make a speech, I can make a sermon, but I need some preparation for that also, but I cannot make a disciple, a disciple is one who makes disciples, so there is a big difference between preaching and disciple, Jesus said make disciples, he didn't say go and preach the gospel and come back, all those places that he went to when he preached the gospel, he never came back empty handed, every place that he went to he discipled and planted the church, he never said I distributed 10,000 pamphlets in such and such place and we had a great crusade and so many thousands came and what happened to them, no, this difference, to know this difference is very essential, in his lifetime Billy Graham, the greatest evangelist of our time, evangelist, not a disciple, preached to 200 million people, these are official statistics from 200 million people, of which 20% of the people responded in the cards, and Billy Graham's strategy was to say to the people, okay, you accept the Lord Jesus Christ, yes, fine, so you go back to your church, you go back to your church, you go back to your church, everybody has to go back to his own church, whether you come from Seventh-day Adventist or whether you come from Jehovah's Witness or wherever you come from, you go back to your church, and so Billy Graham never became a controversial person, every pastor loved him, because he would always say go back to your church, he didn't say come to my church or go to Pentecostal church or something like that, that was his strategy, till this day this is the same strategy, but then somebody did a survey of what happened to those 20 million people who went to church, and within one year only just a small fraction stayed back in the church, just a very small fraction, actual skim off is literally zero, you will meet many people who will say I was saved when Billy Graham needed, yeah that's okay, but he was never discipled, of course few, I mean you throw the grain anywhere, some will grow, because they were never discipled, people are never discipled in the church, if the discipling is one-on-one, in the privacy of home, you meet as friends, two or three gathering together, therefore Jesus set up a system where he said where two or three gather together in man, Matthew 18, 18 to 20, and it says all the power in heaven and earth, these two or three people, the Spanish translation says where two or three congregate makes the congregation, but we, I mean it must be very difficult for you coming from mega church, two or three constituting a church, how is that possible, sounds ridiculous, but that's Jesus formula, where two or three get together, congregate in my name, I am present, so minimize, not maximize, if you want to be effective church, it's like Gideon's army, I mean when the call comes, 32,000 people turn up to fight, and God says, you got a lot of junk here, chunk them, so finally, he only has 300 people, and Gideon looks 300, how do you fight a war with 300 people, and God says, you're not fighting, I'm fighting, that's why Jesus in his ministry had only 12 disciples, he could have made thousands, 12, and that to one of them ditched him in the end, so beware of the numbers, go for the real stuff, so operational part is goal, make disciples, not converts, not church members, make disciples, what is the definition of a disciple, John 15,8, how do you glorify God, this is to my father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples, have you got another version, good old King James, or closer to me, King James version or something, yeah, that's King James, all three are King James, this is to my father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourself, then you shall be my disciples, is that King James version, no, is that King James, does it say that, King James over there, King James, by this my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples, so to qualify as a disciple, you have to bear much fruit, that's the definition of a disciple, who's loaded with fruit, you can't simply say, I read the Bible, and I go to church, and I pray, and I do these good works, and I'm a disciple of Jesus, it doesn't work, a disciple is one who has abundant fruit, who has made abundant disciples, a sheep produces, replicates sheep, cow produces cow, a disciple replicates disciples, so go, make disciples, then baptize them, in the name of the father, son, and the holy spirit, who baptizes, the one who disciples somebody, he's the one or she's the one who must baptize, same person, you don't get some holy man, from somewhere, to come and baptize, you do all the donkey work, and then he says, please come and baptize, no, that doesn't work, you disciple, you baptize, it's such a difficult concept, this one, for an average Christian, oh, but what will my pastor say, don't ask that question, ask what will Jesus say, Jesus will say, good for you, pastor will say, bad for me, you disciple, you disciple, you baptize, how many people Paul baptized, three, two, one, first Corinthians 1.16, 15.16, if you read, first Corinthians 15.16, Stephanos, family, and a few more, he says, I can't remember, not too many, that's not my ministry, Philippi, Philippi and Jailer, he doesn't say, Paul baptized, he got baptized, who baptized, we don't know, maybe Silas baptized, because Silas was also in jail, first Corinthians 14, no, what did I say, first Corinthians 1.16, yeah, 15.16, first Corinthians 1, you Australian guys are a bit slow in opening the Bible, I got to get my tribal guys here, before I can finish, there was division in the church over there, you know, I'm Paul's and I'm Paul's and I'm Barnabas and so on, because whoever baptized them, so Paul is careful that he doesn't get the credit for it, of course I baptized the householder, Stephanos, besides, I don't know whether I baptized any other, so, yeah, and Jesus baptized, did Jesus baptize, John 4, 1 and 2, the Pharisees said that Jesus was gay and that's why he was on the throne, although in fact it was that's right, that's right, so, what, no, no, he would have written there, see the thing, good thing about Paul, never traveled alone, he always had, you know, if he was alone, he would be writing letters and say, please come soon, Timothy, Titus, where are you, come, so, you know, he was like that, the only time he traveled alone was in Athens and there he didn't baptize anybody, there were no signs, there were no miracles, he made a mistake, God, Jesus already told that go two by two and gone alone there, so, he was a complete failure in Athens and there he ran into intellectuals, all kinds of things, we'll discuss Athens more a little later, a disaster model, so, this great commission is, go make, Jesus is the sender, go make disciples, not converts, not church members, not laymen, not pastors, not clergy, make disciples, all the other titles are add-ons, don't make your disciples, make them disciples of Jesus, there's so many people who say, I have so many disciples, it's amazing, they're not your disciples, make disciples of Jesus, and what is the next point? Teaching them, what? Teaching them to obey, that's right, obedience, not theology, obedience, that's a different ballgame, obedience, what is the problem in Garden of Eden? Problem in Garden of Eden? Obedience was the problem, and this divert over there, remind me to come back to great commission, otherwise we go off the tangent, Garden of Eden, there are two trees, one is knowledge of good and evil, and the other one is tree of life, now the problem with Adam is, the good thing and the bad thing is that God comes down during the cool of the day to walk with Adam, very nice, but there's a little problem, it's not just a pleasure walk, it's an accountability walk, because in Genesis 2.15, God put Adam in the Garden of Eden to work and to protect, to guard it, read it, Genesis 2, if you learn nothing else, you'll speed up your Bible opening thing, otherwise I'll get my tribal folks here, 14, 15, yeah, he put him in the garden to work, so every evening when God came down, he says, hi Adam, how are you doing, what did you do today? or would be automatic, normal, and Adam had to tell two things, this is what I did in the garden, because even if God has planted a garden, if you leave it alone, it'll become jungle, so he has to make sure that, you know, he's trimming and pruning and watering, and although there are four rivers, there might be areas where the water might not get there, so he has to work, and number two, he has to protect it, protect it from whom? Only Adam, nobody else is there, yeah, the demons all around, just waiting at the door, God told Cain, evil is just waiting at the door, so it was the demons were there, not demons, Mr. Demon himself was there, Lucifer was there, waiting for a chance to destroy, therefore God said, watch it, and Adam failed, why did he fail? Because he resented God coming every evening and asking him, it was an accountability walk, it was not just a pleasure walk, it was an accountability walk, at the end of the day, you must be able to tell God, this is what I did for you, I have a domain that you've given to me, gardening Eden is domain, you've got to work there wherever you work, in the government, in the bank, in the office, in the school, in the hospital, a shop, wherever you work is the domain that God has given you, and you have to work there and you have to protect it from the demons, we divide the secular and the divine, divine is there on Sunday, and where you work the six days of the week is secular, secular means God free zone, God is not allowed there, so if God is not allowed there, you know who is passing the order, so our business is to get him out from there, take that place where God has placed you, you are his representative, you are the Adam and the Eve over there, make it demon free and establish God's kingdom, this tree that he climbed up, the tree of knowledge, of good and evil, there's lots of good coming out of it, but the problem is the root is the same, for good and evil, how can you have same root system for good and evil, if you have, then eventually the evil will get over, take over, just like in a farm or a field, you may put the good seed, but the weeds will eventually take over if you don't take care of it, and that's what happened here, Adam was probably doing a good job, but eventually his pride got over that, you know, this business of having to tell God what I did on every day was coming with heavy, and if we held accountable for what we do during the day, every day, we'll find it heavy going, this is the domain you've given me, and I'm accountable for that, and given account every day to God for that place, but that will change it if you understood our role there, God has put me in this place, in this city, in this particular area, in the hospital, school, hospital, bank, or shop, factory, or farm, or wherever, he's the domain God, and I'm going to take it from the evil one, and establish God's kingdom over you, then we have this Sunday concept, Constantinian church would be over, that was a huge demonic thing that Constantine did by starting the Sunday, up to that point the church was meeting on Sabbath, because it was a very Jewish church, so that those who became messianic Jews, they're meeting on Sabbath, and they're worshipping Jesus instead of just the Torah, he changed it to Sunday, because he was a sun worshipper, and so we have this, he bequeathed this beautiful model, because in his time he built a lot of towers, sun worshipping towers, and they had a bell on top, so Sunday morning as soon as the Sunday was bequeathed to the sun God, and as soon as the first light of the dawn would strike the tip of the top of the tower, the bell would ring, and everybody would come there and worship the sun, and when he became a Christian, he added the hall, so after you worship the sun, you can go inside the hall and worship Jesus, so that's why I have this beautiful design, we have bell towers, and we have a hall, we're still worshipping the sun on Sunday, if he was a true Christian, he would have declared it the Lord's day, not Sunday, because every day is dedicated to some God, moon God, when this is to one God, they're all Greek and Roman gods, it's in my book all those gods names, so you know that's where the basic problem is, Adam did not want obedience, and so all of us have got into that problem, it was an accountability walk, which has to be, we are accountable every day, not at the end of our lifetime, that will keep us in the straight path, back to the great commission, go make disciples, disciples not converts, not laymen, not church members, baptize, you baptize, you disciple somebody, you baptize, where do you baptize? Church, church baptistry of course, you won't have access to that, anywhere, anytime, can you tell us some incidents of baptism that took place in the New Testament, where they took place? Ethiopian was on the roadside, who else? Cornelius, yeah he got baptized in the military headquarters, he was living there, he was the captain there, he got baptized in the jail, yeah, Peter baptized 3,000 people, where? Jerusalem is known as a city of pools, there are lots of pools, we know some like Siloam, and which other one? Lots of pools, people used to go and camp there during the feasts, I might as well clarify, what happened in the old Jewish system, when they came for feasts, there are seven feasts, of which three they have to celebrate in Jerusalem, the four we celebrated within the boundaries of their own homes, so the Passover, the festival of fast foods, and the Pentecost, and the abuth, these three they had to celebrate in Jerusalem, and that was a week-long festival, so people coming from, say Bethlehem coming to Jerusalem, or Jericho, or wherever they came from, they would camp around a pool, there are lots of pools, so far they've discovered 80 pools, they say there must have been over 100, so they would camp there, and the process was, the procedure was like this, that if you commit some sin, then you would find two people from your group, and you confess your sins to those people, the men confess their sins to men, and women had to find women, because women are not going to tell you what sin they've committed, so the women had to find two witnesses, then after confession, they would take a bath of purification, or ablution, so men took in any pool, but women went to separate pools, because it was a very orthodox community, men were not allowed, where women were having this thing, bath of purification, baptism, so women baptized women, and that doesn't mean somebody had to catch hold of nose, and you know, pick it up, and turn him upside down, and nothing like that, you know, this is our invention, and baptism was taken, not given, you only accompany the person, somebody has confessed her sins, you went with her, you didn't even have to get in the water, but if she says, no, I don't want to get in the water by myself, I'm scared, so okay, we'll come, and maybe two, three, four, a lot of women will go, or men will go, you took baptism, the rest of the people just put their hands on you, just like they show in the Jesus film, John baptizing Jesus, he just puts his hand up there, Jesus goes in the water, like that, and so women baptized women, men baptized men, after that they would go to the temple, up to this point the priest has no role, first time they will run, go straight to the altar, you couldn't enter the temple over there, first running into the altar, which was outside the temple, there's a lot of slaughter, and this, that, or the other, so there's a little distance between them, and there you took your lamb, or goat, or bull, or whatever you're taking for, and the priest would say, put your hand on top of the head of this animal, because you committed the sin, and you should be dying, but this is atonement, I mean he's dying before you, so you had to put your sin, a hand on that, and then he would slaughter the, the priest would now slaughter the animal, then he would put it in the sacrifice on the altar, and depending on what kind of offer it was, if it was a burnt offering, you really done some serious sin, then the whole thing was burnt to ashes, but if it was a peace offering, or a wave offering, then he just waved it around, the fire, and then gave it back to you, he would throw into the altar, fire altar, parts which are forbidden, organs, liver, spleen, kidney, lungs, heart, brain, everything would be put into the fire, you'll only get the meat, but as he was giving you, he'll keep one leg for himself, one shoulder, that belonged to the priest, then you left it there, and he went, then you enter the temple precinct, but it was not, you didn't have chairs and benches for you to come and sit there and pray, you stood outside, in the courtyard of Solomon, and there you prayed, like this, with your hands above your head, and then you had to say that, you know, whatever prayer you wanted to pray, one was thanksgiving prayer, and whatever things you wanted to ask, and final prayer would always be, Messiah, come, Messiah, come, if you go to Jerusalem now, to the wailing wall, whatever else they're praying, at the end of their prayer, the order is saying, Messiah, come, for them Messiah still not come, so that was a constant prayer, but these are the things they did, then they came back, picked up their goat or lamb, and went back to the, where the community is camping, and then they will have community meal, so it's a seven-day feast, today two or three people were offered their animals, next day two, three people offer, next day like that, so whole week they had celebration, while the meal was being cooked, they would be gathering there, and the elders will be telling the stories, of what great things God had done in their lives, so every Jew child knew, from Adam, to the present situation at that point, who were their ancestors, and what great things God, what happened in Egypt, and what Moses did, and what all happened, they all knew, they're very well up on these things, so this is how they celebrated the feast, and so this baptism thing, you know, later on was taken over by the church, only priest could baptize, in India is so strong, this concept that only the pastor can baptize, that if you say you're going to baptize, you will be thrown out of the church in no time, and if they heard that women are baptizing women, that's heresy, so this last 10, 15 years has been a big struggle for me, especially for my wife, trying to make women, baptize women, she says, oh no, pastor said, no, that's his business, changing that has been a mega, mega shift, you know, so my wife last year baptized 30,000 women, she didn't baptize a single one, she's following Paul's, but her team baptized about 30,000, that we can count for, we don't know how many more happened, because when the first generation Christians come, they don't have hang-ups, the traditional Christians have a lot of, what will the pastor say, what will the church say, what will the community say, too many hang-ups, these new believers come, they never heard that only pastor is supposed to baptize, so you say, you won't baptize, it's not baptizing, without any hassles, this is a big issue in this country, I don't know how big issue it is in Australia, is an issue, women baptizing women, you spend half your time on the beach anyway, so that's good, now what has happened is, the resistance has gone up so much, there's so much persecution, that no longer in India, it is safe for you to go to a pool or pond or riverside and baptize, so a lot of baptisms, like here, you have a meeting, somebody says, I want to be baptized, we get buckets of water and everybody pours, and everybody raises hands and that's it, right there, or take them to the bathroom or washroom and baptize them, a lot of baptisms taking place, of course in gulf countries, that's the norm, bath tub is the norm, because you know, when people say, how, will you use filter like this, or did you, how much, I said, no, no, excuse me, god doesn't look at the amount of water, he looks at the heart, as a man, I don't know how many of you read the heavenly man book, have you, yeah, very nice, isn't it, everybody's read that, because he baptized these 12 rogues, criminals in his cell, with one tumbler full of water, but that's all they get in Chinese jail, for the whole day, you get one tumbler full of water, that's it, he didn't drink it all day, but the hardcore Pentecostals say, no, that's no baptism, god looks at the heart, he doesn't look at the amount of water, he doesn't look at who's baptizing, whether it's a bishop or it's a woman, he looks at the heart of the person who's getting converted, it's important to remember that, so go make disciples, baptize them, there are many churches who don't baptize anybody during the year, zero, I was sitting in a church, now the beautiful church, you know, just I was admiring the glass, colored glasses, things over there, curtains, everything, and I was supposed to speak and the pastor was sitting next to me, old, old British traditional church, beautiful, I said, by the way, how many Gentiles did you baptize last year, he looked straight into my eyes, says, you've not baptized a Gentile in the last 50 years, I was such a shock, you know, 50 years, and he's proud of it, I was just calculating on the Baptist church, Southern Baptist church, there are 43,000 churches in America alone, and there are at least 10,000 churches do not baptize anybody in the whole year, and the others are just sprinkling one or two, if everybody, every church baptized, just two people every month, they would have a million baptism in one year, Baptist and Church of Christ, that's about 200 people that are brought up in the church, so it's very, very cool. And that too from Christian families anyway. That's just recycling Christians. So, baptize them, and the next thing is, what is the next thing, the Great Commission, go make disciples, baptize, teach them to be obedient, obedient to what? What teaching? There's a lot of teaching there. Which one do you teach? All? Like? Yeah, that's right. I mean, you teach this one, you teach everything. If you teach them to do the Great Commission, you teach them everything, because they got to learn everything to do this, because you love others means make him disciple. How do you, I mean, you know, God is glorified, it says in John 15 because you make disciples. How do you love your enemy? The best way to love him is to make him a disciple. How will you love your neighbor? The best way to love your neighbor is to make him a disciple. So, you just, one single command, if you just follow, there are too many ramifications that finally fulfill that. So, we teach only one command. You go and make, teach your new followers of Christ, the Great Commission. And then finally, there's a fifth part of the Great Commission is go make disciples, baptize, and then equip them. Finally, what do you do? Sit in the church and stay here forever. Be happy. What he quoted in the beginning, John 20, 21. The father has sent me, so I said, give him a kick in the pants and say bye. What are you doing sitting here? I was talking to one church man, a friend of mine, you know, that guy, he goes and sits in the, in the pew in the same place always. That's his reserve place. He just goes and sits there. So, I said to him, brother, you've been sitting in this place, you know. Every time I see you sitting on that place on Sundays, I've been here sitting for 25 years. He said, that's good. So, I said, what's, what's the next thing in the agenda? So, he said, what's the next thing? There's nothing next in the agenda. I'm just waiting for the call. When I get my transfer order, I will go from here six feet underground. He was as clear as that. I said, after 25 years sitting in the church, that's the vision you had, six feet underground. I said, that's right. I said, have you heard of the Great Commission? He says, I've been sitting on that place for the last 24 hours. I've never heard of it. What is this? He says, it's a good church, active church, good singing. Twenty-five years, the man has never heard of the Great Commission. His vision after sitting in 25 years is six feet underground. Sad. It's really sad. So, the final step is, don't make them sit in the church. The best examples, I think, are two examples we have. One is the Sunday service. There was a Samaritan woman at the well. She had a conversation with Jesus. How many minutes? You want water from me? But I'm a Samaritan. I'm untouchable. You are a Jew. And the rabbi is looking at you. How can you drink water from my hands? So, Jesus says, the woman, if you knew who I was, I'd give you water to drink. And you won't be thirsty. Wow, that would be something. You won't be thirsty again. Give it to me. And then she becomes a theologian. Yeah, but you people worship over there in Jerusalem. But we have our own temple here. Theologian. Only theologians that discuss theology with Jesus. And Jesus says, not there, not there, but in truth and in spirit. You want to worship me? Can't you? She says, can I have that water, please? She says, yeah, go and bring your husband. And that really stumps her completely. And the wicked. Five husbands. You've got five husbands. And this woman was totally unacceptable woman in the village. She has come to that well to fill water in the middle of the day. I've been there and the culture there is not coming and filling up water in the middle of the day. One o'clock. The culture is, women get busy with the well. There is another well in that place if you go there. In the city. You don't have to come to this one mile further down the hill. Jacob's well. She is filling from there. Because this woman's reputation was so bad in the village, she couldn't face other women. Women were busy at the well from morning. After breakfast, they were there washing clothes, filling up their pots and pans, this thing, that thing. Everybody was there. She was not there. She couldn't face them. They would pass adverse remarks at her. So she would see all these people are busy with lunch hour at home feeding their family. She would be out there. She couldn't face them. Now, this 15 minutes, I don't think it took 15 minutes really. We tried between myself and somebody. We finished off in 30 seconds. The whole conversation. She is transformed and it says she left her pot over there. Which means, excuse me, I'm coming back. Watch this. And she's back. We don't know how soon or how late. But she's got the whole village on trail. She's going around knocking on the door. Come on, come on, come on, come on. This woman, we are having lunch. Come on, you can always have lunch later on. You got a profit here in town. And she's got them walk one kilometer to that well. So transformation doesn't take, you don't have to say it takes time. Transformation doesn't have to take. It can be instant. So we don't say I have to go to Bible college, I have to get a proper education, this, that or nothing. Within minutes, this woman got the whole village at the feet of Jesus. You got to get people at the feet of Jesus within minutes of your conversion. Don't say, wait, you're not ready. You just came into the Lord. Yeah, that's when they're hottest. They're really hot at that point. Most of our conversions comes from absolutely brand new converts. And you know, they carry a burden. What's it called? Oikos evangelism, family evangelism. You are saved. Your first burden is, I don't want, I am going to heaven, but I don't want my mother to go to hell. So you go, you talk to your mother. Mother says, what's wrong with you? You want to abandon the gods of your ancestors. But she's mother, you want to save her one way or the other. Your father, your uncle, your aunties, your brothers, your cousins. So the new convert carries this huge burden for his family. And so our conversion rate is extremely high because we tell them, don't go here, they're everywhere. Preaching gospel on the roadside, street side, distributing, don't do that, please. Unless you want to get bashed up. Go to your uncles, aunties, mothers, fathers, brothers, cousins, nephews, nieces. Or find convenient relatives. Just call somebody uncle, he'll be very pleased with you. Oikos evangelism, extended family. So, understanding the core issues of the Great Commission is very important. When I explain to people, I take a sandwich normally. Sandwich has three parts. One slice of bread on the top, and that's the Old Commission. Old Testament. And it's all about God. Old Testament's all about God. Then there's a bottom slice of bread, and that's the New Testament. It's all about Jesus. Jesus came, Jesus did this, Jesus did that, he died, he rose up again, everything is about Jesus. Knowing this one and this one doesn't take you to heaven. You can know as much about Jesus, you can know as much about God, what he did, doesn't take you to heaven. There's a meat in the middle. That's you. And that's the Great Commission. That's your part. That is your part. You can know all the Old Testament, you can be Old Testament theologian, that doesn't take you to heaven. But that's God's role, God did it. The New Testament is about Jesus Christ's role, and he did it. But what am I supposed to do? And that's the meat. And most Christians are eating tasteless sandwich without the meat. The vast majority of Christians, everywhere I go there, I was last month in a big medical conference, medical students came out. Professors, lecturers, readers, medical college, very famous, 500 people. The whole convention hall was full. I don't know how many people, a thousand they say. And I said anybody, but anybody, but anybody can tell me what is the Great Commission. Not one. Not one medical student or doctor or professor knew what the Great Commission is. And there are highly literate people, intelligent people, experts, don't know the Great Commission. Ignorance, darkness, blindness is rampant among Christians about their role in the whole business of the kingdom. You can know, you can read the New Testament, you can study it, you can know all about Jesus. It's good. There's nothing wrong with it. But ultimately you must ask, what's my role in all this? Yes, Jesus came, he died for the sinner, he died on the cross, he shared his blood, he's resurrected, he's in heaven now. Fine. But that doesn't take me to heaven. Doesn't get my name written in the Book of the Lamb. So, what is my role? My role is to fulfill the Great Commission. Get it? If Christians would know that this is the focal point of the whole thing for me, then it shouldn't take very long to evangelize the rest of the world. There are six billion people in the world. Two billion are already Christians. Everybody has to just bring three people which we could do it in one day. Samaritan woman could do it within the hour. The whole village. And Jesus is there with his disciples. When first he started talking to this woman, the disciples were not there, they had gone to the market. That's a minor miracle by itself. For Jewish disciples to go and buy bread, Samaritan bread, is itself a miracle. They would have never done that, but Jesus must have told them, go and buy bread. So, these guys said, how can we buy Jewish, how can we buy Samaritan bread and eat it? No way. But because Jesus told them, their Guru, they went away. When they come back, and now having bought it, they are hungry. So, they are looking at the bread and they are waiting for Jesus to get started so they can eat. This Eastern culture means you have to wait for the boss to get started. Not like Australia, everybody charges. You have to wait until the big man starts. So, they are just waiting. And Jesus is not even getting started with the bread. So, they are having one big difficulty with that one. And in the middle while they are looking down at the bread, Jesus says, lift up your eyes. John 4.35 Jesus says, lift up your eyes and see. The harvest is? White. Not ripe. White. There is a difference between ripe and white. They grew in Israel, corn and barley and stuff like that. And when the corn or barley is ripe, it is golden yellow. It is beautiful. But if you leave it in the sun, the color evaporates and it is no longer golden yellow. It becomes white. Jesus is not saying that the harvest is ready. Jesus is saying the harvest is overripe. If you leave it any longer, it will rot. This is the Samaritan woman within the minutes of her transformation. So, great commission can be fulfilled as we are seeing here in this country within minutes of their conversion. Somebody takes baptism today, tomorrow he has gone there, you find out he has baptized his mother already. The Lord is adding to his numbers daily. Hallelujah. So that is a great commission. I thought we would just revise. It is a very basic thing. We are on the same page. When I am talking about great commission and you are talking about great commission, I just want you to be on the same page. This is the geographical. This is the people group one we said. Go and make this happen. All nations. It is nations. The other one, Acts 1.8, from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth. That is the geographical one. This is you are going to get hold of people groups. There you get hold of the places. We have gone from this village to that village to this city to that city to this nation to that nation. But it must march. Oh, it is still time. Any questions? Sir, wait. Is it just after being done? No, if you leave it in the sun, you don't harvest it when you should harvest it. Then it becomes white. What I would like to do, if you have questions, you can ask questions, but you don't have questions, then I would like you to divide into small groups and discuss this great commission. Its implications and how you might implement in your context.