Scripture: Genesis :26-28 & Matthew 28:18-20
I. The great commission means you are to reflect God’s glory.
A. A commission is a commandment, and the commandment God gave to Adam and Eve is found in Gen. 1:28. The fact that God had made Adam and Eve in His image (vs. 26) is what would enable them to carry out God’s big command for them to fill the earth and rule over it. But Adam and Eve didn’t want to represent God and reflect His glory. They wanted to be God. So, they sinned. They failed to reflect God’s glory.
B. But Jesus did reflect God’s glory as a man. Hebrews 1:3: “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Jesus is with you now (Matt. 28:20) in the person of the Holy Spirit to give you the power to obey Him and reflect God’s glory.
II. The great commission means you are a king multiplying God’s rule over the world.
A. God is the King of Kings. So, part of being made in God’s image is that you are a king or queen given authority to rule over His world (Gen. 1:26). Adam and Eve were supposed to rule over every creeping thing on the earth. They should not have permitted the creeping serpent to enter the garden as an antagonistic and unclean being. They should have gone to war with the serpent and defeated it. But they did not.
B. Who is Jesus? Daniel 7:13-14: “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”
III. The great commission means you are to obey God in working the garden.
A. Gen. 2:16-17 shows that Adam did not do the work of the garden in the way that God wanted Him to. He failed again. He disobeyed. How did Jesus do at obeying God’s commands? John 6:38: “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” Our union with Christ is shown in Romans 6:4: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
Application:
Thank God that He has given you the power in union with Jesus to please Him in all things.
Sources:
The Bible
Commentaries on Genesis by Allen P. Ross and Matthew by D. A. Carson.
Sermon Discussion Questions
- What are the similarities between God’s great commission to Adam and Eve and Jesus’ great commission to His disciples? How does the commission given to Adam and Eve point to our need for Jesus?
- How does our union with the resurrected Jesus affect our Christian life? How is what is true of Jesus now true of us as Christians? What are some things that are true of Jesus that will never be true of us?
- Adam failed to obey God, but Jesus obeyed God. What does Jesus’ obedience mean for your ability to fulfill the Great Commission that Jesus gave to you?