When Jesus sent out His men on their first ministry venture, His instruction included this forcible word: “Freely you have received; freely give.” When persons approach our door and ring the bell, we tend to think, “What do they want?” True to His own ministry, Jesus confirms His commission to His men as a giving ministry. He said it in terms of a proclamation of “good news.” Even when the angels appeared to the shepherds at the time of Jesus’ birth, they said, “I bring you good news of great joy which shall be for all the people.”

I wonder: Have we lost that? If you are mentoring someone as a disciple of Jesus, he or she will pick up in a flash whether your orientation is one of giving or getting!

In Luke 24:45-49, Jesus’ crucifixion is past and He speaks to His men as their resurrected mentor. They are still ecstatic (albeit incredulous and puzzled) with His resurrection; so Jesus opens the Old Testament, showing how all these things had been forecast. The time had come to tell the world the news of it all. And these men, just 11 men, were the appointed messengers. He said it plainly: “You are witnesses of these things.”

As I have mentioned before in this series, Jesus was clear when He gave an order or commission. In these words in Luke 24, Jesus’ apostles as “sent ones” were commissioned as witnesses of these things. In other words, what they had to say to the whole world conveyed specific content. They were not conversationalists, but eyewitnesses of the most significant events since the world was created: Jesus’ death and resurrection. They were like announcers. They were to tell what they had seen and heard. And they were unique as the actual men trained by Christ. It would be their testimony of which the New Testament would bear witness. They would be known as Jesus’ apostles. John later wrote, “That which we have seen and heard we declare to you” (1 John 1:3).

Having a clear presentation of the gospel—yes, even memorized as required in D. James Kennedy’s Evangelism Explosion—assures a definite witness to Jesus Christ and His atonement. And this is what Jesus sent His men to give to those who would hear. It is also that same message we as His church are to give to others. I wonder if we are fluent with a clear message. It’s one of the important steps in mentoring a disciple so that he is able to reach others.

With Jesus’ commission was, of course, a promise of forgiveness of sins. One of the signs that our witness is getting through to people is their conviction of sin. Note that I did not say their awareness of sin. I quit telling people they are sinners. The people I talked to all knew it! The problem is that it does not bother them. So I learned how to explain what sin does to God. When they began to grasp this, then with the working of the Holy Spirit they began to feel conviction! That’s the first step to true repentance.

If you ponder that promise—expressed plainly in the Apostles Creed, “I believe…in the forgiveness of sins”—it is indeed an amazing word of good news! And it’s the sense of that good news that motivates us to give that word to sinners. Think of the profound blessing we have experienced in having had our sins actually wiped out. No longer any threat hanging over us, no lostness, no bondage, no barrier to God’s fellowship! It’s difficult not to become excited when explaining such things to people bogged down in the effects of their sin. The promise of forgiveness through true repentance was in the apostles’ witness.

In a time of racism and political and national discrimination—and there’s nothing new about those attitudes—the gospel message knows no barriers. The message is the same for all. It’s encouraging today, two millennia later, to know how that good news has spread. I hear estimates about “the fastest-growing religion,” but I’m inclined to agree with sociologist Rodney Stark who, in The Rise of Christianity, documents Christianity as in the lead. Jesus envisioned that with those words “all the nations.” Where and to whom? Everywhere and to everyone! After all, the Old Testament testifies, “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.” Jesus was not a dreamer!

Having said that, however, many have wondered how these 11 men could fulfill such a commission. That leads us to note Jesus’ profound promise to them.

“Behold, I am sending forth the promise of my Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” The commission came with instruction about what to say, to whom to say it, and where to say it. Clear enough! And now the promise to assure fulfillment: the coming of the Holy Spirit. They were to wait until He came. We know from Luke’s second book that He came on them on the Jewish holiday Pentecost. Power indeed—three thousand converted! An historic event, never to be repeated, though sometimes you will hear, “What we need is another Pentecost.”

Not so. That Pentecost marked Jesus’ having sent His Spirit into history—the same Spirit indwelling Him as He ministered on earth, into His apostles and consequently into His Church. Things came together for those men on that day, and from then on they fulfilled their commission. The record of all of that is called “church history.”

I began this series relating how I came to know about Christian discipleship and musing on why I was out of seminary and an ordained minister before having any specific exposure to it, as such. I spoke of my friend, K. M. Young, and his hesitancy to tell our congregation his personal account of having walked with Jesus for seventy-some years. But then the burst of enthusiasm in our people as he unfolded the story! He shared his life in Christ with us, and we celebrated. That silent, mystical working of the Holy Spirit that evening bore out the word of the late Richard C. Halverson, chaplain of the U.S. Senate, when he spoke at the 1966 World Congress on Evangelism in West Berlin. His address focused on this thesis: The key to effective evangelism is biblical fellowship (emphasis mine).

Until people are ready and able to share with each other their experience in knowing Jesus Christ, probably there will be little evangelism and no discipleship. But, positively speaking, when the Holy Spirit begins to unlock us to one another so that we experience the communion of saints, that same spirit (and I might have said Spirit) unlocks us to those needing to be saved. And it’s then we recall, “Freely you have received; freely give.”

Ken Smith has been a Reformed Presbyterian minister for nearly 50 years. He and his wife, Floy, are members of First RPC of Beaver Falls, Pa. This series was written for the Covenanter Witness of Ireland and is used by permission.