Conquering Christianity!

[AI translation] This so-called "Great Commission" was Jesus' last and final instruction to his disciples in the days before his ascension. Today, on the Sunday before Holy Thursday, this command is heard in pulpits in many places. That is why I chose it. I thought for a long time about what title I could give to what the Lord says to us through this Word. I finally came up with this title: Conquering Christianity! Jesus is here sending the apostles out to conquer the world. It was in obedience to this command that Christianity set out on its journey to conquer the world. Conquering Christendom! I know it's a big thing! But it's the only way to make a difference. So much so that we have to say outright that if one's Christianity is not conquering, then perhaps it is not Christianity at all! For being a disciple of Jesus and making disciples of all nations - these are two sides of the same thing. So there is a tremendous responsibility on the church and all believers in the world, for the world. But this great task is embedded between two of Jesus' most powerful statements: 'All authority has been given to me - and I will be with you always. These two massive pillars hold up the church's immense responsibility to make disciples of all nations!Christianity can therefore be a conquering Christianity because it has a Lord, a Leader, a King, who is above all things, to whom be all authority in heaven and on earth. Jesus, even here on earth, spoke, taught and acted as the embodiment of the power of God Himself. What breathtaking power his words and deeds had, what divine authority to give new laws to replace old ones, to forgive sinners, to call us to follow him, to promise us the glory of heaven! He had power to exorcise and to reward, to loose and to bind. And now that He has died and risen again, after the redemptive work He has done, He has been given full power, full divine power over all kinds of powers, good and evil, in the visible and invisible world. There are also other powers in the world: spiritual and physical powers, thoughts and weapons, rulers and world views, angels and demons, which control and influence the wheel of history, the thinking of men, but all these are "given" to Him, they serve Him, they are His instruments. So much so that they can exist and function as they advance His redemptive plan to its ultimate fulfilment.
For now, let us always see our own Christianity and our own task in this world as being also involved under the authority of the supreme Lord of heaven and earth, Jesus, as part of the great struggle of Jesus Himself, the supreme Lord, for the extension of His reign. So when one struggles within oneself or around oneself against some sin, or when one strives to make others know the truth of God revealed in Jesus, it can never be a hopeless undertaking, for it is not a struggle alone, it is not an individual undertaking, it is not a struggle for oneself, but for One who has already won, who as supreme power is in control of His army... Just the other day I was saying to someone who has to fight a terrible evil power in his own life all the time: there is much more at stake here than his individual victory or defeat. Jesus is fighting against Satan, against demonic forces and powers. The decisive, great victory in this battle has already taken place when Jesus died and rose again. On Good Friday and Easter, the fate of the whole war was essentially decided, Jesus won the battle. He now has all power in heaven and on earth. Battles can still be lost in the process of eliminating a defeated enemy, but wars can no longer be lost! And if you may lose a battle on the very part of Jesus' front where you are fighting for His lordship under Jesus' lordship, but don't be discouraged and don't give up the fight: your battle loss doesn't change the joyful fact that Jesus has already won the war! I can no longer think of this world as if the cross of Jesus had never stood on this earth, as if the tomb of Jesus had never been opened on this earth, as if Jesus were a pathetic, helpless pretender to the throne!
Whoever knows that Jesus, crucified and risen, has all power in heaven and on earth, somehow sees the whole of heaven and earth differently: more calmly, more hopefully. Much more serene, much more hopeful about his daily life, his encounters with people, his daily duty, his Christian responsibility, his task in the world, his problems at home and in everything else. Let me give you an analogy: a girl who works in an office became a bride. Her fiancé worked in the Foreign Ministry and had to travel to China as a foreign representative. In a year's time he will come back to his fiancée, they will get married and he will take his wife with him to his distant post. The daughter goes to his office every morning, come rain or shine, as she always does. Even now, Miss XY, the typist, picks up her salary every month in the same way as before. So while nothing has changed in appearance, everything in her life has changed. She now sits there with a different inner awareness of her daily work, even if she does it with the same dedication as before. The happy future is now embedded in today, even if today is just like yesterday. She is still called Miss XY, but in her heart of hearts she feels like NN, so she has become a different person! And I believe that the man who has ever stood in spirit on Calvary under the cross, who has ever seen with faith the open tomb, has heard this: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me...", has somehow become a different man from within, even in his old environment, even in his old job. He sees the world differently: much more freely, much more broadly; he feels himself in it differently: much more easily, more courageously; he fights sin differently: in the knowledge that he is on the side of the victorious Jesus; he sees all Christendom differently: as the only truly victorious cause, the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ, the cause of Him to whom all power in heaven and earth has been given!
I said that we are talking about conquering Christianity. Well, whether your Christianity, whether our Christianity is conquering, turns on how much we believe that Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. So Jesus continues, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations..." This is very emphatic because it shows that the Christian man's mandate, his missionary task, is inextricably linked to Jesus' authority over all. The commission which Jesus here gives to His own, that is, to us, is undoubtedly to win other people to His cause, to help other people to come to submission to Him. It is not enough that you yourself are a disciple of Jesus in one way or another, but you must become a disciple of Christ in such a way that others may become disciples through you. Who? Thus says Jesus: all peoples! From this broad designation, therefore, not even your own child, or your spouse, or your closest family member, can be an exception! But neither is your furthest running acquaintance, or even your enemy! There is no question, then, that the task and the mandate of every believer in this world is what Jesus commanded us in this command: "Go and make disciples of all nations..." But in what way should this be done here and now, by us? Certainly not by standing up in large mass meetings to proclaim the Lordship of Christ, and not even by trying to convince people of other minds of it by telling them about Jesus, the power of the Jesus in whom we believe... But in some other way! More modestly, but more effectively! Simpler, but harder. How? By becoming yourself as fully a disciple of Christ as you would like others to be, as you would like others to see you. How does the Great Commission say it? "Make disciples..., baptizing them..., teaching them... to keep..."
A disciple is someone who learns, who wants to learn. A disciple of Jesus is someone before whom Jesus is the supreme authority, the Master! Not public opinion, not the spirit of the age, not the interest of the moment, or anything else. He asks Jesus, he wants to hear and learn from Jesus how to behave, how to relate to friends, enemies, work, suffering. He wants to learn from Jesus what is right, what is wrong, what is essential, what is incidental. So he makes time for himself to ask, learn and learn again from Jesus every day. That is the disciple! A disciple, then, who is baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This statement deepens discipleship. It reveals that being a disciple is not simply sitting at the feet of Jesus, but also a mystical relationship that cannot be expressed in words. A true disciple is not only a follower of his Master, but one with his Master, one who has himself been immersed (baptised = immersed) in the death of Jesus and has himself been raised to new life in the resurrection of Christ... Who is fully in the God of the Trinity! "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I command you." The disciple, then, does not immerse himself in some sort of idle piety, ecstatic rapture, but lives, does all the good things he has learned from Jesus. A disciple is a person who not only knows that love, forgiveness and compassionate help are Christian virtues, but who actually loves, forgives and helps. He keeps all that the Master commands him!
I once met someone who told me that all his prayers were answered by God. What an astonishing statement! I wonder what this man asks for in his prayers? What could he know for sure that he would be heard in heaven? He then said that he prays every morning that he may meet some one to whom he may minister the gospel, to whom he may be a help, a blessing, by being a disciple of Christ. And this prayer has never gone unanswered. Not a day has gone by without his being able to transmit to someone what he had learned from Jesus. And it conquers. No need to talk, argue, debate, win. That is the disciple of Christ. And the more truly we ourselves become disciples of Christ in this way, the more we can be convinced that Christianity - such Christianity - is still a conquering Christianity today! Such Christianity is conquering, if only because it bears this promise: "I will be with you always, even to the end of the age." So it is as if Jesus were proving to His disciples that when one of His disciples wants to fulfil his Christian mission in this world, he is not really alone: in his every action, movement, aspiration, word, Jesus Himself is present, in all His actions, in all His movements, in all His aspirations, in all His words. He who truly labours and works for the cause of Christ can be convinced that Jesus is on his side... This is what it means: "I remain with you, I fight with you, and I myself go with you, I speak with you, I suffer with you, that you may triumph with Me!"
Do you know what I am convinced that this is really true, that Jesus Himself is with His disciples as they fight for His reign? That, in spite of the many miseries of the believer, in spite of his laziness, his backwardness, his unfaithfulness, his little faith, his many powers of resistance, the cause of Christ in the world stands and spreads. If a secular movement were represented and directed in such a bad, lazy, clumsy, old-fashioned way as Christians represent and direct Christianity, that secular movement would have long since ceased to exist, would have failed! The mere fact that you go to church, that there are any conversions, any results, any believers giving money, time, for the cause of Christ on this earth today, is tangible proof that Jesus Himself is with us every day until the end of the world!
I said at the beginning that two great pillars hold up the Church's tremendous responsibility to make disciples of all the nations of the world. In the knowledge, in the happy faith, that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him, and that He is with us every day until the end of the world, we should and could be much more courageous, much more self-conscious, much more conquering Christians!
Amen
Date: 3 May 1959.