Yesterday we mentioned that Francis Schaeffer called Joshua “a bridge book.” That leads me to say that as I have studied a large number of the commentaries that deal with the book of Joshua, I’ve detected three basic approaches to this book. One is the approach of the liberal camp. To them, Joshua was chiefly a puzzle as most of scripture is. They approach Joshua with the attempt to find out who it is who actually wrote it, and when it was actually written, and what actually happened in the period of history about which it purports to give us facts. They don't accept any of this as history. And so, they're puzzled by the things they find here. Many of these commentaries go on at times for hundreds of pages producing what is chiefly human speculation and so has very limited value. 
 
Joshua is one of that class of biblical books that is named after its chief character. Not all of the biblical books are like this as you well know. Joshua is preceded in our Bible by five other books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And not one of those books is named after a major character, though some of the chief and most important personalities of the Bible are found in them. We think of Adam, and Noah, Abraham, Joseph, and Moses. And yet, none of those books is called after the name of those individuals.
 
Today we’ll look at the fifth and sixth important aspects of true evangelism. 
 
5. Work to do. Although God does the work of saving individuals, drawing them to Christ, he does not abandon them at that point but rather directs and empowers them to do meaningful work for him. Most of Christ’s teachings about discipleship fall into this area. So does Ephesians 2:10, which says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” It is necessary that we do these good works (as Christians in all ages have, for unless we do, we have no assurance that we really are Christ’s followers. Like Jesus himself, Christians are to stand for justice and do all in their power to comfort the sick, rescue the outcast, defend the oppressed, and save the innocent. We are also to oppose those who perpetrate or condone injustice.
The third universal of the Great Commission is the command to teach those we have evangelized. We must teach them “to obey everything" (or all things) Christ commanded, which means that for all Christians a lifetime of learning must follow conversion and membership in Christ’s church. This is particularly important in our extremely superficial age.
 
The second great universal of this text is “all nations.” It refers, as I have just anticipated, to the universal authority of Jesus over all people and thus also to the worldwide character of Christianity.