A Study of Matthew: Jesus' Parting Words--"Do Your Part"

Matthew 28:16–20 ESV

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

For the last year, we have been following the life of Jesus seen through the eyes of the Apostle Matthew. Matthew has written this book to prove to his fellow Jews that Jesus is the Messiah who had been prophesied about and for whom the Jews have been waiting for.

We read about Jesus’ bloodline, which proved he was of the lineage the Messiah was to come from. We read about his miraculous birth and how God protected him as a baby from insane King Herod. We watched Jesus be baptized, with the Holy Spirit and the Father showing up to honor Jesus publically.

Then we read about Jesus being tested in the desert, how the devil himself showed up to try to get Jesus to do anything that would make him unsuitable as a sacrifice for mankind.

Then we read how Jesus began selecting his disciples: ordinary small-town, blue-collar workers like you and me. Jesus began to preach, and the people marveled at how he spoke with authority, different from the way the teachers of the law and the religious leaders taught. Jesus backed up that authority by showing he had the power to heal, make impure things pure, raise the dead, and cast out demons. He even had authority over nature itself.

And what does Jesus do with that authority? He teaches people about what the kingdom of Heaven is like. He teaches them the only way to be right with God is to have a right heart, and the only way to have a right heart is to let God make it right.

Jesus teaches his disciples that the greatest command is twofold: love the Lord with all your heart, and love your neighbor selflessly. And your neighbor is whoever is around you, even if they are not the kind of person you typically would hang out with.

Jesus gets into altercations with religious leaders who hate Jesus because he won’t fit into their preconceived mold—plus, he makes them look bad because he exposes their shallow hypocrisy. And while those men are plotting Jesus’ death, he is begging them to repent and embrace the true kingdom of Heaven.

We have seen Jesus ride into Jerusalem victoriously on a donkey, an act testifying that he is Messiah. He cleanses the temple.

We read of Passover, when Jesus broke bread and poured wine, calling these things his body and blood. A few hours later, Jesus looked into the eyes of his betrayer and called him friend.

Jesus is arrested and goes through a mockery of a trial. He is lied about. He is beaten. He is mocked. And through it all, he remains silent. Pontius Pilate sentences Jesus to death by crucifixion. A badly beaten Jesus struggles to carry a heavy cross up the side of a hill. Once there, he is thrown onto the cross, and his hands and feet are nailed to the wood. He hangs in agony, feeling the weight of every sin throughout all time come upon him. He feels the separation from God that we experienced since birth. He cries out in agony, calling on God to forgive those who have done this to him. Then he dies. Lightning strikes. The veil at the door of the Holy of Holies in the temple tears from the top down.

But three days later, Jesus keeps his promise to return from the dead. The angel rolls away the stone. The guards collapse in fear while the women folk are invited by the angel to check out where Jesus used to be before he became alive again. The guards run to report what happened to the religious leaders, who bribe the guards and tell them to convince everyone that a squad of highly trained Roman soldiers slept on the job and were overpowered by a group of small town fishermen and a tax collector.

Now, today, about a month has passed since Jesus rose from the dead. The disciples find Jesus on a mountain in Galilee, and they worship him.

Jesus tells them that he has ALL authority, and with that authority, he tells them to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to understand and keep every command Jesus has given them.

Do you see what Jesus is doing? He calls his disciples, and authorizes them to become disciplers. He commands them to go make disciples of all nations, and teach them to observe everything Jesus commanded them. Which means those new disciples are also commanded to make new disciples to become disciplers.

I think we all know that, as Christians, we are called to make disciples. But what does it mean to be a disciple and to make a disciple?

First of all, we need to understand that what we are called to do is so much more than just tell people about Jesus and “get them saved.” Unfortunately, most Christians stop there. We talk about needing to be saved. But for most of us, salvation is only about being forgiven for our sins and going to heaven. We get people to the altar, and then kind of leave them to figure out the rest.

And, to be fair, we do that because that’s what happened to us. Oh, we may continue to hear Bible stories, maybe even learn a moral from the story. But when it comes to stepping out in the world, we still tend to react to life’s challenges just like everyone else who doesn’t follow Jesus. We don’t make any real effort to address the deep wounds inside ourselves. We live our entire lives as baby Christians, because we were guided by baby Christians. And we end up producing baby Christians who never mature to spiritual adulthood. Because we fail to understand that salvation is about more than just going to heaven. When Jesus talked about salvation, he talked about being made complete. He healed. He restored. He gave people a glimpse of how God sees them and gave them the tools to grow and mature in faith and grace.

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul said,

1 Corinthians 13:11 ESV

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

We are called not only to lead people to Jesus, but to help them grow in spiritual maturity. In order to do that, we need to be spiritually mature.

I understand that this message may sound harsh. But think about it. Don’t you want more of God in your life? I know I do. And I also know that the only thing keeping me from having a deeper revelation of God in my life is me. I limit myself.

I pray for God to make me more forgiving, but I still battle with unforgiveness. How many of you feel like you have been praying forever for God to help you change some thing in your life, but you never seem to get a breakthrough?

It’s very likely because there are emotional blocks in your life. Things that you were told, the unspoken things that were communicated to you about who you are and how life works. These things all get into our heads and hearts and influence how we respond to the world, and to God.

At the end of many services, I often quote Psalm 139:23

Psalm 139:23–24 ESV

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

When we pray that prayer, “search me and know my thoughts”, it’s about more than just asking about what bad thing I might have done that I forgot about. We are praying that God shows us thought patterns that lead us to see ourselves as anything other than a beloved child made in the image of God, that perceives everything said to us or about us as an attack because we have been conditioned to feel insecure and defensive.

James 1:22–25 ESV

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

This passage is saying that it’s the Word of God that tells us who we are. It’s not enough to hear the word or read the word. We need to believe the word and live out the word. Then the word can transform us.

We are called to make disciples. That doesn’t mean that we have to act like we have like we have it all together. What it DOES mean is that we are expected by God to take responsibility for the garbage we have allowed in our lives. God has given us the tools to overcome lies that we have believed about ourselves our whole lives. He has given us the tools necessary to face our past and be victorious. He has given us the tools to live in grace and forgiveness.

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

These fruit are the result of living a life filled with God’s spirit. But if you want fruit, you have to tend the garden. Let’s learn how to tend the gardens of our hearts, and then we will be ready to teach others, so that we all grow into healthy, mature saints of God.

Over the next few weeks, we are going to look at how we can have emotionally healthy spirituality. I pray that God will help each of us take a deep look into ourselves to discover those things hidden within us that hinder us from experiencing the fullness of God in our lives.