In our first consideration of the greatness of the Great Commission, we consider the great master of the Great Commission. This great master—the Lord Jesus Christ—must be considered in His pre-incarnate identity, His incarnate identity, and His eschatological identity.

As I have sought to show in our previous studies of this passage, the Lord’s Prayer is inseparable from the Great Commission and the Great Commission is inseparable from the Lord’s Prayer.

In the first petition, we learn about the purpose of prayer. In the second petition, we pray for God’s provision to sustain us. In the third and fourth petitions (considered in this study) we pray for God’s pardon and power to equip us. In all of this, we need to be persistent.

Does God exist? How can anyone believe in religion when science has neither a need nor a place for God? Is evolution happening today? If God is a God of love, why do we suffer and die? These issues that affects everyone. Evolution teaches us there is no need for God, no spiritual realm, and no afterlife. According to the theory, spirituality is just an evolutionary trick of the mind! The Bible gives a very different picture about the nature of these things.

One of our Lord’s more well-known sayings is, “You are the light of the world…. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:13, 16). In Ephesians 5:8–14, Paul expounds on this truth as he tells Christians to walk as children of light. In the words of the Sunday school song, each Christian is to live with the determination: “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” This passage provides insight into this profound truth. It tells us that “this little light” (1) is a miracle; (2) is not actually mine; (3) is to shine; and (4) is not so little.

The Bible calls Christians to a particular kind of “walk.” In Ephesians 4–5, Paul has shown us the kind of walk we are to have. In the opening verses of chapter 5, Paul exhorts us to walk in love. But this exhortation is not simply an abstract, empty truism. Instead, Paul lays down some objective exhortations. He tells us that our love is to be an imitation (vv. 1–2), that our love will produce a repudiation (vv. 3–4), and that our love arises from our identification (vv. 5–7).

Prayer for material substance is not wrong; in fact, it can be very “spiritual” to pray for material things—as long as we are guided by the introductory petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. When it comes to the prayer and the Great Commission, we must remember that we need bread for our lives if we will distribute the Bread of Life to other lives. We need to pray for bread. We need to pray for money.

The mission of the church is to know Christ and to make Him known. We must know Him before we will be able to make Him known. One of the best ways to get to know Christ in prayer. If we wish others to know Him, we must begin knowing Him by attending His theology classes on our knees.

The Lord’s Prayer is intimately tied to the Great Commission. Prayer is the vital fuel for this enormous task. Everything that the Lord taught the disciples in the Lord’s Prayer is God-centred and thus centred on His task for the church until the end of the age: the Great Commission.

Sometimes, church members who should be striving to usefully build up the body of Christ find themselves useless for the task. They fail to contribute to the overall health of the body, even though they may faithfully attend, faithfully give and faithfully involve themselves in ministries. What makes them ultimately useless and in fact destructive to the Body is a disposition of bitterness. Paul addresses this in the closing verses of Ephesians 4.

In v. 31 he identifies the spirit of the useless church member—those with a spirit of bitter and angry unforgiveness. In v. 32, he identifies the spirit of the useful church member—those with a spirit of kind and tenderhearted forgiveness. Simply, the apostle offers a twofold exhortation: (1) stop being bitter (v. 31); and (2) start being kind (v. 32).

Psalm 16, though not generally thought of as being relevant to issues regarding the sanctity of human life, is most definitely applicable. In it, we see the value and regard that the Lord places on human life and flourishing, and we are called to find the same satisfaction and joy in the life we have been given.

When it comes to the prolife debate, Christians must realise that they are involved in a cultural war, which is nearly as old as history, between the culture of death and the culture of life. God commands us to choose life. This choice includes, but is not limited to, protecting the unborn, valuing the feeble and the frail, and valuing every human being as being made in the image of God. Genesis 9:6–7 helps us to see these truths. These two verses highlight the two ways of life: the culture of death (v. 6) and the culture of life (v. 7).