Why Witness?

R.C. Sproul, a well-known reformed theologian, once told of an experience he had in a seminary class. The professor asked why Christians should bother with evangelism if God’s sovereign election was responsible for choosing the saints. As he went around the circle asking each student individually, the professor didn’t hear one acceptable answer. When he came to Sproul, the student hesitated, then said almost as a question, “Because Jesus commanded it.”

That is the only right answer. No matter what you think about sovereign election, the command remains as recorded in Matthew 28:18-20. Jesus said to His disciples: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Jesus gave a command based on His divine authority over all things. But the primary command was not to “Go.” Without getting too deep in the weeds of Greek grammar, let me just say that “Go” in this verse is a participle. As such, it cannot be the main verb in the sentence. What is the main verb? “Make disciples.” “Make disciples” is in the imperative voice – the voice of command. You might think that doesn’t matter, but it does. If the main command of Jesus was to “go,” that would make evangelism – making disciples – something we go off to do as a special activity. If going is the command, we can sit back most days and ignore disciple-making because we are not “going” at that particular moment. If I go to Africa or I go door-to-door, then I can be about making disciples. Otherwise, I am exempt from the command.

However, if the main verb, the imperative, is “make disciples,” “go,” the participle, tells me how to make disciples. Strictly translating it as a participle, it would be “going.” But there is more to the Greek than that. A text on Greek grammar says this about the participle used in Matthew: “[The participle] conceives of action not as in progress (Present), nor as an existing result (Perfect), but as a simple fact.” Out of 16 translations on my computer, there is the only one not saying “GO;” it is Young’s Literal Translation which renders it as “having gone.” I would translate it as, “as you get on with your life….”

If you are thinking that this all belongs in some graduate level linguistics course, let me explain why it belongs right here, right now. I believe in something called plenary verbal inspiration of the Bible. Basically, that means every word in the original text was given by God. As such, I believe Matthew was given the Greek words in the particular tenses that God wanted him to use. So, it does matter if “go” is an imperative or a participle. The proper translation gives us the proper instructions for how we are supposed to evangelize aka make disciples. How is that? By living our daily lives as disciple makers.

Now let’s move on to the rest of Jesus’ command, “baptizing them… teaching them.” The baptizing part is pretty clear. Paul says that when we are baptized, we are identified with Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. There have been arguments over the centuries about how much water to use and when to administer it, but baptism as a concept is fairly simple. “Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” is more complex. Truthfully, teaching is implied in the making of disciples; a disciple is literally a learner – that’s what the Greek term means. So, where there are learners, there must be teachers. What did Jesus teach?

I am going to suggest that there is a basic teaching of Jesus that is the focus for His command to make disciples. If you boil Jesus’ ministry down to one main theme, it would be that the Kingdom of God or Heaven had come. The Sermon on the Mount was instruction for kingdom living. Many of the parables taught specific kingdom principles. The ideal prayer He taught His disciples opens with, “Thy kingdom come,” and it ends with, “Thine is the kingdom.” He told believers that if they would seek the kingdom, all other things would be theirs. On the day He was crucified, standing before Pilate He admitted the existence of a kingdom, though not one of this world.

I should explain at this point that the Greek word for “kingdom” is more about what the king does than where he does it. In other words, the word didn’t conjure up geographical spaces; it was more about the idea of ruling or reigning. If you were under the rule or reign of a king, you were in his “kingdom.” So, the kingdom of God was a reference to God being the ruler of your life.

The word “kingdom” appears 127 times in the Gospel records. Jesus used it often. But there is another word that appears almost three times more often than kingdom: that word is father. Before Jesus came, the Jews were comfortable with the idea that God was the father of Israel; a common term for the nation was “children of Israel.” Calling someone a child implies a father. But when Jesus called God “My Father,” the Jews became incensed. They tried to stone Jesus on one occasion because they said calling God “my father” was a claim that He and the Father were equal. The Jews couldn’t accept that. Yet, Jesus spoke of the Father over three hundred times in the Gospel accounts. Why so much emphasis? (For more on this, see “Through the Bible in Seven Minutes”)

If you think about it, the message is pretty easy to understand. God made us, and He has plans for us. The kingdom we enter when we trust Christ is the Kingdom of our Father. It’s not a nation; it’s a family. Redemption is about God getting back what is rightfully His as creator. Redemption is about a cosmic battle between forces that operate at a level far above your pay grade. Granted, we play a role demonstrating God’s grace to His heavenly host, but we are the pawns, not the kings in the cosmic chess match. As Paul says to the Ephesians, we can take part in the battle if we choose. We have also been offered the chance to take part in the victory celebration when the battle is finally over. In that final glorious day, we will take all our righteous accomplishments, those things the Bible symbolizes as crowns, and gladly place them at the foot of the throne of God.

If you ever wanted to get involved in something bigger than yourself, this is your best chance. This is what we have to share with our fellow travelers on this fallen earth. There is a reason to live, and it not only gives us purpose now, but it promises an eternity of peace with God. That’s a story you can share happily. That’s why we witness.

Related posts: Two Pressing Questions; Understanding Salvation; What Happens to People Who Never Hear About Jesus?