Simple, Yet Impossible?
The Great Commission may seem simple… but it is undeniably impossible—without Christ.
And yet, no matter how we look at it, this is Jesus’ plan—for building His Church, glorifying the Father, and populating Heaven.
Jesus repeated this command at explicitly five times:
- Matthew 28:18–20 – “Go and make disciples of all nations…” (spiritual multiplication embedded in the command).
- Mark 16:15–16 – “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” (emphasizing “all”).
- Luke 24:46–49 – Repentance and forgiveness will be preached to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
- John 20:21–23 – “As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you…” and He gives them the Holy Spirit.
Acts 1:8 – “You will receive power… and you will be my witnesses… to the ends of the earth.”
But Do We Know This?
Shockingly, many Christians haven’t even heard of the Great Commission.
A 2018 Barna study found that:
- 51% of U.S. churchgoers said they had never heard of the Great Commission.
- 49% said they had heard of it, but most couldn’t identify what it actually was.
- Only 17% could correctly state what the Great Commission is.
(Source: Barna Group)
If this is the central mission Jesus left us, how have we drifted so far from knowing—let alone doing—the “main thing”?
How It Started
Right after Jesus ascended into heaven, having given His final instructions, we have to ask:
“What did the first Christians actually do with the Great Commission?”
The answer? Not much.
Yes, there were monumental events that shaped history—like Pentecost—and yes, the Church grew. But this early growth came mostly through public preaching events led by apostles and key evangelists. For the most part, ordinary Christians stayed quiet and hidden—largely out of fear.
This hesitation and inward focus sounds uncomfortably familiar to the modern Church.
Growth by Addition: The Early Pattern
In the first chapters of Acts, the Church grew through addition:
- Acts 2:41 – “About three thousand were added to their number that day.”
- Acts 2:47 – “The Lord added to their number daily…”
- Acts 5:14 – “More and more men and women believed… and were added…”
This was powerful and exciting—but it was still dependent on centralized events, prominent leaders (like Peter), and physical proximity. The pattern looked like this:
Preaching → Believing → Being added to the community
We might call this linear growth—each event added a certain number of people to the Church.
But then something changed—dramatically. The Church shifted from addition to multiplication.
The Shift to Multiplication
To move the Church from passive addition to active multiplication, God shook things up.
He used persecution to push ordinary believers out of their holy huddles.
After the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7, we read this in Acts 8:1:
“At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.”
Notice who was scattered: everyone except the professional evangelists.
And what did they do?
Acts 8:4 – “Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.”This doesn’t mean they stood in pulpits or gave sermons—it means they shared the Good News personally, wherever they went. This was the beginning of “every believer a witness”—what we now call personal evangelism.