Matthew 28:16-17 - God’s Glory on the Mountain

Beginning Where Christ Began

If we are going to be good evangelists, we need to start where Christ started.

Explain the next 8 weeks of sermons.

But here, all of this begins with the disciples climbing a mountain in Galilee to meet the risen Christ.

Matthew 4:15; at the beginning of Christ’s ministry Matthew described the area of ministry as the “Galilee of the gentiles,” a “people walking in darkness.” Here we are, back where we begin, on the mountain/in the hills of Galilee. 

Mountains=God’s Presence. It is on a mountain that the law was given, God’s presence dwelt, Christ gave the rules of the New Covenant (mat 5-7, cf. Isaiah 2), transfigured and showed His glory, and gave this commission. 

The risen Christ appears to His disciples, in Matthews gospel, for the first time since the resurrection. God’s presence always dwelt in Jerusalem, but here He is, on a mountain in Galilee. This “setting of the scene” should already be preparing us for what we will be told in the last verse - “I am with you all the time.”

Worshipping the Son

With the scene set like this, it seems the only proper reaction from the disciples would be worship. Yet, if we look back through Bible history, this is an insanely peculiar scenario. 

Exodus 15:13-18; 20:18-21

Only 11 chapters earlier, in Matthew 17, Jesus brought 3 disciples with Him up a high mountain and transfigured - They offered to make him tents, then fell on their faces terrified when the voice of the Father spoke. 

11 men from Galilee before God’s presence on a mountain is unparalleled.standing

With the once crucified, buried, and resurrected Lord standing in front of them, the proper reaction is worship, but some doubted.

This links the story back to Jesus walking on water in Matthew 14. Peter has little faith and doubts and begins to sink, yet when Christ saves him everyone in the boat worships. 

The word doubt, in both of these cases, is better translated “hesitates”.

In the Matthew 14 story, the hesitation of Peter is overcome by the worship of the One who can control the seas.

Here, the hesitation and worship seem to be simultaneous in the hearts of the people before him. What they know to be true has yet to fully set itself in their hearts.

Still here, at the end of the story, we see the lingering effects of sinful flesh as the disciples stand before the Lord of glory. Some were still lacking faith. Yet, they worship. 

Why the Mountain Matters

This is what we want for everybody. We want the mountain of God’s glory to be set in Galilee so that the nations can ascend the hill of the Lord and worship. We want Jews and Gentiles alike to come sit at his feet and hear the law spoken from a mountain in Matthew 7; to receive the bread of life from the mountain in Matthew 15, to see Christ’s glory and hear the Father’s voice in Matthew 17. Interestingly enough, the transfiguration is the last time Matthew talks about Christ ascending a mountain (using the word mountain) until our passage today. 

So, how is it that people come to see the glory of God on the mountain? Well, Jesus makes this very clear. 

The church is the means by which the glory of God flows from the mountain to the world. This is what Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 2, that many peoples would say “come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord…”

It is from this mountain, in Isaiah 2, that the nations learn to walk in the ways of God; in the “light of God” (Isaiah 2:5).