Good morning! Last week we started a two-week study of the Great Commission. If you weren’t here last week, we began by studying verse 18 of Matthew 28, which is the part where Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on Earth has been given to me.” And in a nutshell, we learned about how Jesus created everything, he holds the universe together, and he has demonstrated that he has power and authority over all creation during his ministry. When he rose from the dead, we saw that he was given absolute authority and power over everything. Because of this, he now has the authority to send his disciples and the church out into the world, to command them to GO and MAKE DISCIPLES, because the war has already been won through him. Death is defeated, sin is now broken. Therefore, because of this, he tells his disciples to GO. And that brings us to the commission itself.
So here is how we are going to proceed, and I will warn you, you are in for another deep study today: First, we are going to read through our passage, and get familiar with it and familiar with the context. Then we are going to dive deeper into it, and do a bit of a study to flesh out the passage, what it meant for them, etc. Then we are going to go over the takeaways, what do we take away from this passage of scripture? What does it mean for us today? How does it apply to our lives, both as individuals and as the church?
So let’s jump right in and read the commission in its entirety and get familiar with it: Starting right back at verse 18, “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Alright, let’s start out with a little bit of background and context of the story itself in Matthew up to this point: Jesus had been crucified, and then put into a tomb, dead. He then rose up from death. In Matthew it says that an Angel rolled away the stone that blocked the tomb, and sat on it. And the guards were terrified. The two Mary’s come to the tomb and saw this, and the angel says to them that Jesus is risen from the dead, like he said he would. So they rush away, and Jesus meets them and tells them to go tell his disciples to go to Galilee to a mountain, where they will see him. So the disciples go to Galilee, to this mountain Jesus had told them to go. Then they see him there, and most of them worship him. Then Jesus speaks, and says that all authority has been given to him, and then gives his disciples the great commission. This is how the story is told in Matthew.
So last week we focused on the authority piece, and now we come to the descriptive part of this, how they do this. So let's look at that with a little bit of depth, and see what is here. I’m going to up split the commission into three sections, His Command, His Instructions, and His Promise.
So the first section of the commission is the command to GO and MAKE DISCIPLES of ALL NATIONS, this is the command. Everything else in the commission is subject to this, so we are going to look extra deep at this part, Greek and all. When you start to study the Greek in this passage, you see that the command, the imperative, is to MAKE DISCIPLES. This is a verb, which means that it is something that we actively do. We kind of add the word “make” into this, but if we were to try and shoot for a more literal translation of the Greek, I think it would be more appropriate to say “Go and disciple all the nations”. The Greek word for the VERB disciple means “to initiate or instruct a disciple in the ways or teachings of a specific teacher or leader.” However, the Greek word for the NOUN disciple is a description, which means “a student who adheres to a teacher”. In this passage, it is the verb that is used. Jesus isn’t just saying, go create students. He is literally saying, Go and INSTRUCT / TEACH the students that you make.
So they weren’t just supposed to tell people about Jesus and then leave them, they have to ACTIVELY DISCIPLE them. And notice I use the word HAVE too. That is because this verb Disciple is ALSO an imperative, and in Greek that means that Jesus is giving a command.
Now, some people have said that the word “go” at the beginning means “as you are going”, or “as you have gone”, because it is used passively in the Greek. The implications of this would be that Jesus is saying, “As you are going about your life, disciple the people you interact with.” I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be doing that as Christians today, but that is not what he is saying here. Normally they would be right about this passive tense, but every time in the book of Matthew that the Greek word in this passage for “Go” is used in this passive form right before an imperative, like it is here, it always “piggybacks” off the force of the following imperative. For example, in Matthew 2:8, Herod says to his men, “Go and search carefully for the child”, using the passive form. He isn’t saying, as you are going about your day, keep an eye out. He is commanding them to GO SEARCH FOR THE CHILD. Jesus in Matthew 11:4 says, “Go and Report to John what you hear and see.” He isn’t saying, if you see John while you’re getting supper later, mention what you saw to him. He is saying GO and FIND Him, and tell him what you saw. This is the same for the great Commission. Jesus isn’t saying, as you’re living your life, going about your business, share what you learned. He is giving his disciples an intentional mission FOR their lives, GO and DISCIPLE the nations.
Now I do briefly want to talk about the Greek word for All Nations, and then I will MOSTLY leave you alone with the Greek. The word that we translate as nations in the Great Commission is Ethnos. And I think that we lose some significance by translating it as nations. The word Ethnos was almost always used to refer to the people OUTSIDE of the nation of Israel either directly or by inference, otherwise known as, the Gentiles. Now this doesn’t mean that Jesus is saying that Israel is excluded from the good news, it is just assumed that they are included. The emphasis here is that BEFORE Jesus, “salvation” as it was understood came through the Jews. If you wanted to be part of God’s kingdom or people, you had to be jewish or join them. But NOW, Jesus is saying that it is available to EVERYONE. Go tell the Gentiles the good news! They can now be a part of God’s kingdom!
This is even more of a proof for the word Go being tied to the command to disciple. How can they teach the Gentile nations about Jesus, if they are just going about their business in Israel? That doesn’t make any sense at all.
So let’s look at this first part with all of this in mind. In context, Jesus is talking to his disciples on a mountain after he had risen from the dead. Skipping the authority part (We covered that pretty thoroughly last week), he COMMANDS his disciples to GO OUT and actively disciple, to raise up disciples and teach them, all the nations, INCLUDING the Gentiles, in the ways of Jesus. This isn’t revolutionary for us looking back, but for the disciples on that day, it was a HUGE deal. The idea of God opening the door to all the non Israelites was completely foreign. Remember last week, when I said that after Jesus appeared to them, they asked if he was now going to restore the nation of Israel to its former power? He’s like, what? No, heck with that! Let’s save the world instead! We have the full context looking back, but for them, this was a whole other thing!
Alright, so let's move on to the second part of this commission. First was the command, now we move to the Instructions. This is HOW they were to do it. What does this discipling look like?
There are two parts to this process that Jesus outlines, the first being Baptism. The Greek word for baptize means “To dip or immerse, to make fully wet”. And this is the clencher for all Christians, no matter WHAT you believe about the necessity of baptism. Just a little warning, I’m going to get off on a rant here for a minute. I was raised in the church of Christ / Christian church movement, and I have NEVER understood why baptism is such a divisive subject for Christians. My theory is, I think it comes down to the fact that we always feel like we have to understand everything, we HAVE to understand exactly how everything works, and salvation is no different. For some reason we feel that we have to have a blueprint for everything. I have heard so many circular arguments on both sides of the baptism debate that make some good points, but ignore the greater context of scripture. So let me make it really simple: JESUS, GOD HIMSELF, says here that to be his disciple, you need to be BAPTIZED. This is from Jesus’ own mouth, God himself. Now, let me be clear: I also don’t like when people think they can use baptism to put God in a box, and use it to decide who is saved and who is not. He’s GOD! He can do whatever he wants, he can save whoever he wants! He didn’t give us a scientific blueprint for everything, instead, he says follow me. He uses that phrase at least 20 times in all four Gospels. JESUS is what saves us! What is baptism without faith in Jesus? Nothing, just an awkward bath in front of a bunch of people! But what is faith without baptism? Scripture says that even the demons in Hell believe in Jesus. What SEPARATES us from them, is what we DO with that faith and knowledge, we FOLLOW him. Jesus says that to be his disciple, we have to be baptized. Follow him. If you love Jesus, and you want to follow him, to be his disciple - You NEED to be immersed, you MUST be immersed. Not because I said so, but because HE said so. We need to stop arguing about it in the Christian world. and just DO it. There is a hymn called Trust and Obey that we used to sing when I was a kid. I think that is the best advice I can give on the topic of baptism. Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. You don’t need to understand it. You just need to do it. It isn’t our job to decide who is saved or not, leave that to Jesus. All we need to do is trust and obey. If every Christian in the world just did this, we would never argue about baptism ever again. And look, at the end of the day, if you disagree with me on baptism, take it up with Jesus, because he is the one who made it a part of the discipleship process.
Now that I have concluded my Rant on baptism, let me briefly touch on that second part, the teaching. Jesus’ disciples were commanded to baptize the Gentiles, THEN TEACH them to observe, to conform, to all that he commanded the disciples in his time on earth. This is where we often mess up. We are not supposed to baptize people, then leave them to figure it out on their own! I might be unpopular for saying this, but based on what I see here, that is just as bad as not baptizing them at all. Jesus does put baptism first, but in the Greek, they are both equal participles supporting the main imperative to go disciple. What good does it do anyone to baptize people, if you don’t teach them about the life Jesus has called us to? I think that sometimes we really drop the ball on this one as the church. If you have never been discipled by someone, if you were baptized, but nobody walked alongside you to help you grow and mature as a Christian, I want to apologize to you, because you should never have to figure all of this out on your own.
That brings us to the third part of the commission, the promise. Jesus promised his disciples that he would surely be with them, even until the end of the age. As they went into the world, as they preached the gospel, as they discipled the world, he would be with them and walk with them. And this really circles back to his authority, For it is by his authority that he is able to do this. And the promise in Greek is an ultimate promise, which means it has no expiry date. He was with the disciples as he commissioned them to go out into the world in Matthew 28, and he is with the church today as it strives to fulfill the commission that was given to the disciples.
Ok. So now it is application time. What does this mean for us today? What should you take away from all of this?
First, Jesus’ command to his disciples to GO into the world and disciple the nations is a not a suggestion, it is a mission that the disciples took seriously, and they gave their lives in pursuit of this mission. The big C church now carries on that same mission. Just as the disciples understood that it was a direct command to actively spread the gospel, so the church today (Again, the big C church) should treat this command from Jesus as our core mission to the world and community around us.
Second, God’s kingdom has no borders. What once belonged to the Israelites, now anyone and everyone can inherit. This was true 2000 years ago, and it is still true today. We don’t get to draw lines and decide who can enter. The Israelites saw the Gentiles as unclean and unworthy, and maybe they were. But the unclean and the unworthy is where Jesus spent most of his time. If Jesus commanded his disciples to go to the clean and the unworthy, who are we to argue as we continue that mission as a church? Because at the end of the day, we are ALL unclean, and we are ALL unworthy, are we not? That’s kinda the whole point. Who does the world see as unclean and unworthy today? Maybe that is where we need to spend our time as well.
Third, and this I think is really important: We all have a role to play as part of God’s church in carrying out this mission. Sometimes we study these passages the wrong way. We look at them as an instructional guide, and then we zoom in and personally apply them to ourselves as individuals, but in many cases it was never meant to be read or applied like that. So it is important to remember that this is a historical account of Jesus speaking to his disciples, and personally giving THEM a commission to build the church. Yes, that commission still belongs to the church today. But YOU are not the church. You are A PART of the church. One part of a whole.. If you have been carrying the weight of the Great Commission solely on your shoulders, living in shame because you don’t feel like you have “converted” enough people to Jesus, here is a radical truth for you: We are not ALL called to be evangelists. We are all parts of one body. You don’t have to carry the weight of the Great Commission solely on your own shoulders. But we do all have a part to play in carrying it out. Paul says in Ephesians 4 that Jesus gave some Christians “as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service.” Maybe you are not called to preach on a street corner. But maybe you ARE called to walk alongside a new disciple, to teach them, to lead with your life experience and maturity as a Christian. Maybe you are called to serve those in need in the community, who are hurting and broken. We don’t just preach the good news with our words, but with our actions. Jesus himself says, “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” And then during a prayer in the book of John, Jesus prays that we would be one body, unified in love. He says that the world would know him, the world will know Jesus, by our love for one another. Or maybe you still need to be discipled. This is a very real role to play as well. If you need to grow and mature as a Christian, it's important to not neglect this, or to be too proud to admit it. We all need to grow and mature, but if this is all new to you, it is important that you make that a focus in your life. Not just for yourself, but for the strength and maturity of the church as a whole.
This is really important stuff. Whoever you are, whatever you are called too, you ARE called to live a life evident of the grace you have received through Jesus. Paul says in Ephesians 4, “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” The idea is that you shouldn’t HAVE to tell people you are a Christian, because they should realize by looking at you that, hey, something is different about them! And at the same time yes, you should still ALWAYS be ready to share your love for Jesus with others, even as you go about your life. In Acts 8, we DO see that the Christians at large shared their love for Jesus with those around them, they shared the Gospel with those around them as they were being persecuted.
I know you might be thinking, this seems like a lot, how do we even start going about this mission? Here’s my suggestion: If you’ve never hear of the pray for one movement, give it a try, because this is something that we can ALL do. This is pray for one in a nutshell: Every day, pray for one person that you can share the love of Jesus with today, whether it be through sharing your faith, or just showing love to someone who needs it, or whatever! This is the mission Jesus has called us too as a church, so you can rest assured he will honor those prayers. We all have a part to play in carrying out this mission, each according to their spiritual gifts.
I know that third takeaway was long but the FOURTH thing you should take away: as the church continues this mission, Jesus will be with us. He will be with us until the very end. He who has the authority to raise from the dead and redeem the world will be with us as we carry out his redemptive mission to the world.
To try and wrap this all up and conclude - We all, together, are the church, one church, and we share this mission as one body. You might not personally be called to pack your bags and head overseas, or maybe you are! But as a body, we do everything together - and that includes carrying out this commission that was given to the disciples. As we work together to GO and Disciple, the world comes to know Jesus - whether through the work of an evangelist on the mission field, or through a believer in an office among unbelievers, who demonstrates the love of Jesus through their life and actions. We are all separate parts of one body, working together in different capacities to achieve one common goal. We have the power to change the world, because Jesus has power and authority over all.
Whether it be across the sea, or just down the road, whether we preach on the street corners or share the love of Jesus through a life evident of the grace we have received, we GO together.
