Abraham’s head jerked up at the unexpected sound. Isaac leaned back at the sudden movement, rubbing the tears from his eyes and started to ask a question “What…?” Abraham’s hand snapped up in the command for silence as he continued to scan the landscape for potential dangers.
Rustle, rustle…
Both men’s heads turned to look down the mountainside where the sound had come from. A rustle in the bushes could just be a mountain goat foraging for tasty new growth, or it could be a mountain lion looking to feast on a tasty goat. Bears also denned in caves in the mountains.
Rustle, rustle, rustle…
This time the men saw the branches of one of the bushes move in time to the sound. Abraham reached down and picked up his discarded knife without taking his eyes from the suspect bush. He motioned Isaac to go to the left while he began his stalk to the right. Isaac absently removed the loop of the strap still snugged around his wrist and tucked it into his sash in unconscious imitation of his father. He then picked up a fist-sized rock which he could throw with such force and accuracy to discourage many beasts.
Rustle, rustle, rustle, rustle…
The motion had become more violent as they approached the sides of the shaking bush, their hearts thumping just as hard, but what they saw was totally unexpected.
Baaa…, the sheep sounded as he saw them, clearly asking for help from them. Abraham nervously scanned the landscape to see if there was a response to the sound, but seeing nothing, he sheathed his knife and stared at the scene before him. What he saw was not unusual–a young ram not yet used to their newly grown horns, foraging for tender shoots in a bush, as they were used to doing, but then their new horns catching on the limbs as they backed out.
It was also not unusual to see a young ram apart from a flock. Sometimes when the young rams began to feel the first strength of their adulthood and acted too aggressively toward the other rams, and would not submit to the lead ram, they would often be driven away from the flock. The situation was not unusual to the shepherds, but the location was. Sheep were creatures of the plains and meadows. It was not natural that a lone ram would be this far up a mountain.
Suddenly, Abraham straightened and his eyes grew wide. Isaac saw the sudden motion and, after a moment’s thought, his eyes grew wide too, remembering his father’s words on the path up, “The Lord will provide the young sheep for the sacrifice.”
Abraham shook his head to clear the thought and returned to the practical. He motioned Isaac to the rear of the sheep and the young shepherd knew what was needed. He took the strap from his sash, looked down to check the slip knot and suddenly was reminded that just a few minutes ago, it had bound his own hands as a sacrifice. He bound the sheep’s hind legs and then held the animal still while his father bound the front legs. Then Isaac lifted him while Abraham untangled the horns from the limbs. Feeling itself free, the ram tried to get to his feet and run away, but only fell to its side.
Abraham left the foolish sheep to kick and buck until it gave up while he studied the size of the ram and the steepness of the slope–it would take both of them to carry the ram up. As the ram finally lay still, breathing heavily from its exertions, Abraham motioned his son beside him and with a practiced motion they lifted the heavy ram over their heads and settled it on their shoulders, Abraham taking the heavier head end. Putting their arms around each other for stability and holding the ram’s bound feet with their other, arm in arm and step by step, the two men carried the sacrificial sheep up the steep slope to the altar waiting above.
The old man raised his knife high and prepared to thrust it through his struggling son’s chest…
“ABRAHAM, ABRAHAM!”
The voice of God blasted across the mountain top like a windstorm, kicking up sand and debris, and staggering Abraham back from the altar. His hand dropped to his side and the knife fell from his nerveless fingers. Then it was like his joints failed him as he dropped to his knees and then prostrate on his face before his God. He was barely able to choke out a reply past the lump in his throat, “I am here.”
Then God continued, “DO NOT LAY A HAND ON THE BOY AND DO NOTHING TO HARM HIM; FOR NOW I KNOW THAT YOU REVERE GOD, SINCE YOU HAVE NOT WITHHELD YOUR SON, YOUR ONLY SON, FROM ME.”
Abraham lay there a moment longer after sensing the Presence had departed, then he shakily rose to his hands and knees and looked up at Isaac on the altar. The boy was staring up in the direction the voice of God had come from with a look of wonder. He had heard God too!
Getting to his feet, Abraham stumbled over to his son and undid the strap around his feet that he had just tied there, absently tucking it into his sash. Isaac swung around to sit and lifted his bound hands to his father. Abraham still couldn’t meet his son’s eyes as he undid the strap a little, then stepped back to allow Isaac to remove the strap the rest of the way on his own.
Isaac stepped up to his father, reached down and took his hands. Abraham slowly looked up, hoping to see understanding and forgiveness in his son’s eyes. When their eyes met, he saw that, and more.
What Abraham saw was something he had seen many times in the eyes of youth when they were allowed to accompany the flocks for the first time on their summer trek around the great valley and into the mountain meadows. He had seen this look in the eyes of the young shepherds after they had been attacked by a predator going after a tasty sheep and fought it off, or when they climbed down into a ravine to recover a fallen sheep and slipped with only the rope tied under their arms preventing their own plunge to the bottom, or when one jumped into a swollen mountain stream to recover a sheep that had fallen in and then almost drowned themselves, the look they all had afterward when they had faced their own mortality and realized they had dealt with it. What Abraham saw was a man looking back at him from his son’s eyes.
It wasn’t clear who moved first, but the two men met in a fierce embrace. They had almost lost each other! The beloved son, the beloved father… Only the shaking of their shoulders betraying their silent sobs, not even the emotion of the moment causing them to break the discipline of silence when alone out in the wilderness.
While the youth brought over one last rock for the altar, the wood already being laid out on it, the old man secretly tied slip knots in the ends of the two straps that had held the bundle together. After the youth carefully place the rock and looked toward his father for approval, the old man quickly grabbed his hand and slipped the loop around his wrist.
The boy didn’t quite know what his father was doing as he grabbed the other hand and wrapped the band around both of them.The youth was staring at his bound hands in puzzlement when the old man pushed him onto the wood piled on the altar and slipped the other loop around one of his son’s ankles, quickly wrapping the strap around both ankles and tying it off, then swinging the boy around to lay full length on the altar. Now the youth looked toward his father in puzzlement, the questions in his eyes, but as yet unasked. So far he had not struggled against his father’s unexpected actions, but when he saw the old man draw his knife from the sheath, understanding began to dawn on him and then the struggle against his bonds began.
The old man was not able to stand the look of hurt and betrayal in his son’s eyes. He placed his hand over them so he would not see what was coming and also to hold him still. With tears blurring his vision and running down his cheeks, he looked at his son’s chest to pick out the best spot to kill him quickly and not make him suffer. Steeling himself, holding his struggling son still with one arm, he slowly raised the knife and raised himself on his toes to generate the maximum power when he plunged the knife into his son’s beating heart, just as his God had asked him to do.
Two pairs of sandals walked up the gravely path that led to the top of the mountain.
Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch.
Shepherds by their dress, one was old with a white flowing beard, but still walked with vigor.
Crunch crunch, crunch, crunch.
The other was a youth, just reaching his majority, carrying a bundle of branches on his shoulders.
Crunch crunch, crunch, crunch.
“Father,” the youth asked. I see the fire and the wood, but where is the young sheep for the sacrifice?” The old man stopped so suddenly the youth had to swing the bundle of wood sideways to keep from hitting him with it.
The old man’s gaze became distant as he remembered the words from his God that had brought him here. He had served and trusted his God his entire adult life, but had never expected that He would ask this of him. He knew many of the gods of the cities around the great plains required this of their worshippers, but he had thought his God was different.
Coming back to the moment, but unable to look his son in the eye, he replied, “God Himself will supply the young sheep for the offering, my son.” Then he hurriedly stepped off to continue their path.
Crunch crunch, crunch, crunch.
Two pairs of sandals walked up the gravely path that led to the top of the mountain, but there was a question, would there be two pairs walking back down the path at the end?
Practicing in most things means working to improve one’s skill, but the activity rarely has any ‘real world’ impact. ‘Practicing’ the G.C. is more like when a lawyer or doctor sets up a ‘practice,’ they are practically applying what they have learned in school and internship now in the real world.
Using football as a metaphor for the G.C, there are two main ways that players and teams improve–by practice and playing games. If a player–such as a quarterback–wants to try and go to the next level, they often put in extra individual time reviewing game films of their upcoming opponent. So, to summarize, individual skills and knowledge start with individual practice. Then team practice moves more toward developing teamwork skills. The goal is playing time in the game. That is where the excitement is, where the challenges are that makes you dig for your best, or shows you where you’re lacking.
‘Practicing’ the G.C. also occurs on three levels. First is the individual level where we develop our personal relationship with God through our personal devotional, prayer and Bible study time. If we really want to be in the big Game, we need to lean in on these personal activities.
After I left the Army, I was playing for a recreational soccer league. We were guaranteed a certain minimal amount of playing time, and that is all I got because my skills were just average. I preferred to play forward and I noticed that we didn’t have a natural left-footed player. My dad and I are slightly ambidextrous, so I determined to see if I could elevate my left-footed skills.
Every day after work, I took my soccer ball to a nearby school with a blank brick wall and a flat area in front of it, and practiced kicking the ball with my left foot and catching it too. After about 3-4 weeks of this, coach began noticing my improved skills when I made some good stops and crosses to the striker, one of which he was able to head in for a goal. I got that increase in playing time I wanted.
Our personal devotion and prayer time with God, ‘practicing His presence,’ is when we develop our closeness to and sensitivity to Him. Our personal Bible study and Scripture memory is when we are equipped with God’s Word.
‘Team practice’ in the G.C. would be any time we are with other Christians, such as at a church service, home group, a Bible study, or serving together. In those situations, we should be trying to put into practice the ‘one another’ commands of the New Testament and developing our ‘team skills’ of fellowship–sharing testimonies about what God is doing in your life, answers to prayer, and meaningful messages from God’s Word.
The real ‘game’ of the G.C. then is when you are out in the world. If you have developed your personal relationship with God and developed your team skills with other Christians, then you should be ready to put the Great Commission into practice.
I hope this series on the Great Commission has caused you to think more deeply about this central facet of the Christian life, and that it has motivated you to do whatever you need to do to ‘get in the game.’
“Everything we do is practice for something greater than where we currently are.” Les Brown, motivational speaker and writer.
It seems like almost all aspects of our life consists of starting at an entry level and learning, advancing to the next level, and so on. We do this in our education. Tests to show we learned enough to advance are more obvious maybe in education than in some other arenas but they are always there. The same is true in sports. How well we do in elementary recreation league determines if we make the team at school. How well we perform at the high school level determines whether or not we’re picked for a college team and so on.
The same is true in the arts. My sister was always very talented, but didn’t get the chance to focus on developing her talent until after her daughter was on her own. I remember one year talking with her on my birthday and she was telling me she had opened a store on Etsy. I was very excited for her and asked how many pieces she had sold so far. ‘None,’ she answered. But my sister continued practicing her art and the sales happened. Next she displayed and sold at local craft shows. Then she was invited to display and sell some of her works in local businesses. By the time she was within one year of retirement, she was receiving invitations to headline art gallery showings. Her dedication took her from an unknown artist to a featured headliner. You can see some of her work at TerryChanceMosaicsEtc.com
Growing into the Great Commission is like that. We often think of those who are participating in the G.C. as the pastors, the evangelists, the church planters and missionaries. These are like the pros in sports. Every one of us on the Christian continuum can be a participant also. Let’s look at the various elements for how that can be.
If you listened to a gospel presentation, believed and were baptized, you were participating in the Great Commission. If you listen attentively to your teaching pastor’s sermon each week, maybe even take notes and discuss them, and if you are working on changing at least one aspect of your life each week to bring what you do, what you say, and yes, even what you feel and think, into obedience to the Bible, then you are participating in the G.C. Every Sunday we are told at the end of our service @SummitChurch.com “Summit, you are sent!” The idea is that since we spend the rest of our week in “the world,” we should be participating in the G.C. by being witnesses for Christ and sharing our testimonies of what God has done in our lives and the lives of those we know. I have to be honest with you, that is very difficult for me. How about you?
It’s always the small pieces that make the big picture. Don’t underestimate the little things in life! 🧩 Source Unknown
When I decided to start vegetable gardening, I looked for a book that would have all the information I needed. I did have some success following that book, but I realized there was much more I needed to know.
I’ve spent the years since reading every article on gardening I came across, watched every program on TV and talked to every gardener I met. Each time I learned at least one new thing I could add to the bigger picture I was forming of successful vegetable gardening.
Understanding the G.C. is a little like that. A record of Jesus giving the G.C. is contained at the end of each gospel and the beginning of Acts, but there are many more references to it in the Bible. Each of the 5 records are different from each other, but all have connections with the others, as well as unique elements. Here is my attempt at assembling these elements into a bigger, coherent picture.
The SENDING. The first word of the G.C. in Matthew is GO! We see in John how this is a bigger part of God’s plan when Jesus says, “As the Father has sent Me, so I send you.” And the scope of the sending is “all the nations,” “the world,” and more specifically we see in Luke/Acts they are to start in Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria, and then to the remotest parts of the Earth.
Tha SPEAKING. As the disciples spread throughout the world at Jesus’ command (and not just them, but their disciples and so on to each generation until our day and beyond), there were specific messages they were to proclaim which we can summarize under the word the ‘gospel’. Elements of the gospel include “Proclaim repentance for forgiveness of sins. ” Jesus specified that any sins they declared as forgiven would be forgiven. Jesus also said they were to be His witnesses, testifying to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus as the Messiah (the Christ.)
The RESPONDING. It was expected that of those who heard the gospel message, some would believe and some would not. Those who believed were to be baptized as a sign of repentance and forgiveness of sins. Then they were to be taught to obey the commands of Jesus, as the disciples were taught by Jesus, and thus become disciples themselves, culminating in them obeying the final command–the Great Commission.
The EMPOWERING. Although this element tends to appear at the end of the G.C., it actually had to happen first. In Matthew, Jesus is recorded as saying, “I will be with you always.” In John chapters 14 to 16, we see this Prescence be in the form of the indwelling Spirit of God. We slao see this pouring out of God’s Spirit was prophesied by Joel as “the promise of the Father.” The disciples were to wait in Jerusalem for it to happen as it did 10 days later on the 50th day after the Passover, Pentecost. One other element of the G.C. was that miraculous signs would accompany those fulfilling the G.C., as we see they did in the book of Acts.
This initial outpouring of God’s Spirit on Christ’s disciples was a big, flashy, attention-getting event, as befit an inauguration. Something similar happened only a couple of other times to show that God’s promise of salvation was intended to go beyond the Jews. We who have believed also receive the indwelling Spirit, but it tends to grow within us as we grow in our faith and practice of discieship.
So, where are you in the Great Commission? Still working on the believing stage or are you learning and growing as a disciple? Are you maybe about ready to GO! No matter where we are in the Christian continuum, we are the product of and participating in the Great Commission.
from song by Pepper Choplin, copyright 2005, Shawnee Classics.
In Jesus’ last teaching session with His disciples before His arrest, He told them. “I will not leave you alone as orphans…”
Woven throughout His final teachings, as recorded in John chapters 14, 15 and 16, is a coming person called in Greek a ‘paraclete.’ Only John uses this nominative form of a more common Greek word translated several different ways. For example as comfort/consolation = 36 times, hence translated as Comforter. As exhort/exhortation = 28 times, hence called the Exhorter. As beseech/entreat/pray = 29 times, hence as Advocate or Intercessor. Other translations use Helper, Teacher, Encourager and more.
At its most basic, Paraclete means one who “comes alongside.” As I began considering these meanings, the picture of a coach came to mind, so let me paint some word picture from my first coached experience playing little league baseball to illustrate these meanings.
The first thing I remember the coach doing was gathering us around him and teaching us the rules of baseball, what each position did and how we had to learn to play together as a team. He was being a Teacher.
I remember when I was having such a hard time learning to hit the ball and he came up beside me, put his hand on my shoulder gently and said, ‘You can do this. I have confidence in you.’ He was being an Encourager.
I also remember times when I wasn’t doing a very good job in my fielding and the coach came up to me, put his hand on my shoulder firmly, looked me in the face and told me I needed to do better. ‘We need you to be attentive out here. The rest of the team is depending on you to field the balls hit your way. We need you to do your best.’ He was being an Exhorter.
I also remember losing our first hard-fought game and I was even crying. The coach came up beside me, put his arm around my shoulders and said, ‘I know you did your best. It will be alright. I’m proud of you.’ He was being a Comforter.
And then there was the time when I slid into home plate and the umpire called me ‘Out.’ The coach came out of the dugout like he’d been shot out, stood beside me and argued with the ump that he was wrong, that I had beat the tag and so I was safe. Coach was being an Advocate on my behalf.
This Person John labels as the Paraclete is God’s Holy Spirit and He does all these things and more for us.
You see, even though the Holy Spirit doesn’t come upon us in the spectacular way He did for the disciples at Pentecost and a couple of times afterward, He comes to dwell within us at that moment we choose to believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, repent of our sins, publicly profess Jesus as our Lord and are baptized.
The problem is the Spirit is gentle in His actions and hard to perceive to us who are so much more in touch with the physical world than the spiritual one. We need the help of Christians older in the faith and more sensitive to the Spirit who can guide us as we grow to that point ourselves.
THIS is what makes all the difference for us changing from a sinner, living in the kingdom of darkness at conversion, to being a mature disciple, living in God’s Kingdom and ready to carry out the Great Commission.
So, how can we lean into our relationship with God’s Holy Spirit within us, and thus maximize our spiritual growth?
Previously we looked at how much time the disciples spent with Jesus and what kinds of things they did as disciples. Simplifying a little bit to keep the math simple, we can say they spent about 100 hours a week with Him.
Let’s look at how much time per week we spend as disciples. Most of us go to an hour and a half church service where we worship, we are taught, we even fellowship a little with others.
If you have multiple service, like my church @summitchurch.com, they ask us to also serve at another service, that’s another 1 1/2 hours.
Then we have home group or small group, whatever your church calls it, for another 1 1/2 hours where we fellowship, talk about what we learned from the sermon and pray for each other.
If you’re a dedicated disciple or otherwise have the time, you’re also attending a men’s or women’s Bible study or discipleship group for a deeper time of study and discussion for another 1 1/2 hours per week.
And then you’re spending daily time in personal devotion, Bible study and prayer. Maybe you can spend more time than this, but I’m going to call it 30 minutes per day with maybe a day missed for a total of 3 hours per week.
Then there is a special ‘Serve Saturday’ every month for about 4 hours, which we’ll amortize to 1 hour per week and what do we get? About 10 hours per week being a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Do the math, 100 vs. 10 hours per week, times 3 1/2 years, and we’re talking about 35 years of discipleship before we’re ready to take on the Great Commission.
BUT wait, there’s something wrong with this picture. The @navigators.org regularly grows disciples from conversion to Commission in a third of that time. So does our church via @summitrduinstitute.com. In science, if a model doesn’t explain the facts, then the model is at fault.
In a recent sermon, our pastor @jdgreear.com told a story of how an engineer in the 30’s looked at how a bumblebee can fly. Based on the fixed-winged aerodynamics known at that time, he concluded that a bumblebee could NOT fly because the lift capable of being generated by its wing size would not be enough to lift its body weight. Yet, they can fly, even if in their own bumbling way.
Aerodynamics has advanced enough since then they can now explain how a bumblebee flies. So, what is the missing element from my model that explains why it takes only a third as long long as we might think before a Christian is ready to fulfill the Great Commission?
Bill's Bible Blog 