What does it mean to fulfill the Great Commission as described in Matthew 28 and Luke 24?

Paul Washer enlightens us on this topic, explaining the significance of not only preaching the gospel but also understanding what it truly means to believe. He underscores that fulfilling the Great Commission is not just about proclaiming the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, but also about right living in a world that is in stark contrast to God’s Word.

Washer uses an illustration tweaked from John Piper. He likens the situation to a people under tyranny who hear of their freedom won in a war. The herald proclaims the victory, and they rejoice, but do not understand what their freedom entails. This is where the teacher comes in, explaining the meaning of living in this new kingdom. Therefore, the Great Commission requires both proclaimers of the gospel and teachers explaining what it means to live faithfully in God's kingdom.

Matthew 28:19-20 (NKJV): “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

When Jesus talks about making disciples in the Great Commission, Matthew 28, We go back to Luke and the commission is there and we realize that the foundation of that is preaching the gospel. It's preaching the life, death, resurrection, ascension of Christ, Jesus as Lord over the nations and the savior of those who believe in him. So it begins and ends with the gospel. But in that, you see, we live in a world that literally is an absolute contradiction in everything with regard to the word of God. And so, when we go into the nations, we must take not only the gospel, but what does it mean now to believe?

What does it mean to be in this kingdom? John Piper has an illustration and I kind of tweaked it a little bit. But imagine, it's kind of like this. So imagine there is a people in bondage and slavery living under a tyrant. And they realize that a great war is being fought on the other side of this mountain for their freedom.

And the war is fought and they're waiting, anticipating, is the tyrant coming back? Is the Savior coming back? Who won? You know, and all of a sudden they see this mighty steed, this horse rushing toward them with this valiant soldier on it, you know. And he's a herald and he's proclaiming, the King has won, the King has won, and he just runs right past them.

You know, they're rejoicing. The king is one. We're free. What does that mean? And then all of a sudden they see coming from the same battlefield this little kind of burrow, a little little donkey, with a little spectacled man with all these scrolls and pins and everything else and he rides up to them and says, did you hear what the Herald says?

Yes, we rejoice. Okay, now I'm going to tell you what it means. We need both of those things. We need the proclaimer, the herald of the gospel, and we need the teacher that sits down and says, this is what it means to live in this new kingdom. This is who the king is.