Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.Matthew 28:19,20

Can you imagine, for a minute, standing with the disciples, listening to some final instructions from Jesus before He went back to the Father?  Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, with every supernatural power at his disposal, said his disciples, with all of His authority, that they should go into the whole wide world and convert all nations to Christianity. Talk about overwhelming. It would be a monumental undertaking. I can imagine them thinking, “Are you kidding me right now?!”  “Impossible!”  “There’s only 11 of us, and everybody hates us!”

And He only put one tool in their toolbox: “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” He didn’t say legislate people into the kingdom of God or bribe them into it or argue with them about it or “scare the hell out of them.” He said go and teach. But He also gave a promise with that – “and I will be with you!”  Wow!  That makes all the difference.

That is the same power He has given us. He gave us the incredible power to teach the whole counsel of God as He revealed it to us in the Bible.   He also gives us that same promise – “I will be with you!”

That is still the church’s purpose in the world. To teach everything Jesus did and said via everything we do and say. Here’s a sobering thought.  Everything about us teaches: from the clarity of our message to the tone in our voices, to the looks on our faces, to the forms we follow, to the demographic makeup of our gatherings. Everything we do sends a message to all nations about our understanding of our Savior.

I’ve got some good news and some bad news.

The good news is: What we teach people about us and Jesus, tends to stick with them. 

The bad news is: What we teach people about us and Jesus, tends to stick with them. 

Think about that for a moment. The question we need to ask ourselves is: “What do we want to stick with people about us and Jesus?” That is what we should teach.