HG181-182 Matthew 28:16-20, Mark 16:15-18, 1 Cor 15:6-7

16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Mark 16:15–18 NKJV

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

There is nothing wrong with the fact that we at Mount Calvary like to meet with each other in fellowship and worship and to hear from God’s Word and understand it better. In some ways I would like this to be the actual reason for the Church’s existence but, and it may come as a surprise, this is not the case. All these things are not wrong or bad but it is not our primary reason to be here.

John MacArthur said;

If we were saved for fellowship then we would be taken to Heaven where fellowship is perfect. If we were saved for praise and worship we would be taken to Heaven where praise and worship is unhindered and perfect. If we were saved for the sake of teaching and training and knowledge and wisdom we should be taken to Heaven where knowledge is perfect.

Actually, our number one reason for being here is to make disciples. And God has given us all that we need to do it.

The timeline of these events set out in Matthew is not immediately clear for this meeting on some mountain in Galilee. Matthew says that the eleven went to meet Jesus as prearranged.

Earlier in the chapter we read:

Matthew 28:10 NKJV

10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.”

Interestingly, Jesus did not call them anything except brothers, even though they had acted more as deserters but this is Jesus through and through. Just as we saw last week with Peter, Jesus seeks to restore relationships and that is done through forgiveness. The Apostles were given forgiveness, and the Great Commission, which is what this passage is called, is also about forgiveness of sins of the whole world.

Jesus had appeared on a number of occasions, at least four of these were to his immediate disciples. I suspect we have not been told about all of them. A lot of things happened in the 40 days that Jesus was still around on earth before He ascended back to the Father. By this time the twelfth disciple had committed suicide by hanging after being filled with remorse for his betrayal. Remorse and repentance are different. Remorse affects our feelings but repentance is one of heart and mind to change.

Now these disciples went to Galilee to meet with Jesus. This is where it all starts. It starts with our availability. We have to show up. The greatest ability we have is availability. It is answering the Isaiah call: “Here I am”. There was enough desire in their hearts to go and meet with Him. And because they turned up Jesus was there to meet them and He gave the Great Commission and His Promised Presence from then on.

We are also to keep on meeting with the Lord at the place He says, which right now is Mount Calvary Baptist Church. We are to hear the Word, to pray and meet together with His people. Some people give up for all sorts of reasons - normally because the pastor or someone else has upset them. It is just an excuse not to live in reconciled relationship with each other. God forgave us and it is expected that we do the same.

Now the eleven are on the mountain are likely to be there with 500 or so brothers that we find in:

1 Corinthians 15:6–7 NKJV

6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.

And when they see Jesus they worship Him. Worship belongs to God alone. Indeed we find in the Scriptures when someone tries to bow down to an angel they are told not to do it for worship belongs to God alone. Here, there is no rebuke. Why? Because Jesus IS God. They worshipped Him for they already loved and trusted Him. This is where it all starts. With a heart of worship. He is our passion and we are to love Jesus with all our heart, soul and strength. As we go on in our Christian lives we need to cultivate by constant communion with Jesus that which is full of praise and worship to Him. If we are not doing this then what will happen is that we will fill ourselves with our own agendas rather than that of God’s.

Then we have a word here translated as doubt. The disciples doubted. This was no unbelief on their part but simply incredulous about a man who had been dead now before them alive. The word does not translate easily into English for it has within it a sense of hesitancy rather than disbelief. But if somehow they did doubt, these great apostles, then that should be an encouragement to us for they were actually seeing the Lord and were struggling with how to come to terms with it.

So, Matthew says, Jesus then drew near to His disciples. His nearness no doubt would have dispelled any concern that they were seeing things or that He was a ghost. His nearness would have been comforting for they would really, really know He is alive and that He was flesh and bone even if He wasn’t quite the same as He was before. They could no longer have any hesitancy.

Then Jesus spoke. “All authority has been given to Me in Heaven and Earth.” This is one of those phrases that you really have to stop and think about. Everything has been given to Him. He is over everything. He was saying: “I am the King, the President, the Prime Minister. I am the Chief, the Owner, the CEO, I am the Managing Director, the Chairman, the Governor. I am the Captain, the Sultan, the Emperor”.

Everything is now under His control whether it is people or angels or other spiritual beings. He has the right to direct, command, and execute. All are under His power. He also has the power to forgive, to judge, to receive or reject people, and the power to save.

So, what is expected since He has all authority? Submission. That’s what. He is in charge and we are called to submit to Him and participate in His Kingdom. He is God. Authority simply belongs to deity. Now Jesus’ authority has been reconfirmed by what He achieved at the cross and resurrection. He won. Others lost. He has the freedom to whatever He wants, to whomever He wants, whenever He wants, however He wants without exceptions.

We are happy for Him to save us but we also need to be happy for Him to rule over us. We are to be people who submit.

Here is the command of Jesus: Make disciples. That is the command. And what is required of commands? Obedience. That’s right. So far, we have had availability and submission, now comes obedience.

We make disciples by going, baptising and by teaching.

I suppose the first question we should ask is: “What is a disciple?” A disciple is a learner, someone who hears, understands and obeys. Isn’t a disciple one who follows and comes under the authority of one who is greater. A disciple then is not something that happens by a single decision but is a lifetime choice. It is larger than simply making converts. A convert is at the start of a journey. A disciple is one who is learning and enrolled in the school of Jesus as their tutor. A convert maybe a five minute conversation - but this is not what is being commanded here - this is a getting alongside someone and mentoring them. Remember that this was Jesus’ way: He sought out people, and after they had come to Him, He attached Himself to them and then He taught them until they were themselves able to make disciples. This is hard, arduous work as the disciples were hard, arduous work. It will no simpler for us! We are looking for those who will make a decision for Christ with a permanent change of allegiance to Him.

And where are we to go?

Note what else it says: “of all nations”. This is our mission field - it starts here in Manselton and reaches to Australia, to the North and South Poles. All authority has been given to make Jesus known to all the nations. Incredibly Jesus prophesied that He would be a world religion and the whole world is His parish. But the job is still not done.

Going means that we are not to stay. It requires movement on our part - we have to get up and go out. There are times when people will come to us but more often than not we need to be out there making relationships and directing people to Jesus by what we say, and by what we do. Going takes us out of our comfort zone.

I know that some people denigrate the Church as being useless, cumbersome, hypocritical and so on. But the Church is God’s people. The Church is the primary way that God reaches the lost. By being the Church we are doing evangelism. When we meet together Satan and His cronies tremble for we bring our praise and worship to God through Jesus Christ and by instigation of the Holy Spirit and this has an effect upon the Spiritual Realm.

But let me reiterate. The Church’s purpose in existence is to go. We cannot make disciples unless we go. First to our own community and then to the rest of the world.

So, we make disciples by going and then what? By baptising.

Baptism is in the name of the Trinity. It means that we are accepting the Lordship of God into our lives when being baptised. It is the accepting of the Kingship of a different Kingdom. It is a public declaration of leaving this world’s ways and taking a stand with Christ. It is an essential part of being saved. It is the first proof of obedience to Him. It is also essential that we are baptised into the Trinity for this is our faith. We are not Unitarians who only believe that God the Father is all that there is. No we believe in God the Father, God the Son, Jesus Christ, and God the Spirit.

Baptising is the Gospel for it is the symbol of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. And to be baptised means that a person has identified with Christ and Christ with them in death, burial and resurrection. The Gospel is repent and be baptised. And we are told to go and baptise. In baptism you confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Salvation and baptism are inseparable. Remember we are talking about making disciples and a genuine disciple will desire to be baptised whilst learning about the teachings of the teacher, namely Jesus. A disciple is not a disciple until baptised. Baptism is always with the first act of obedience. Look at the Pentecost Sermon of Peter - 3000 were baptised. Look at the Ethiopian Eunuch with Peter, he was baptised. Look at Saul who became Paul, he was baptised. And Baptism visibly plunged disciples into communion with the Trinity and their work of Salvation. To not be baptised is to be disobedient.

At preaching crusades where a million or so fill in a card to say they’ve made a decision for Jesus should be automatically be baptised. This will show who means their decision and who does not. It makes you think twice. If you are not willing you will not be willing to declare you allegiance to Jesus in the outside world of unbelievers.

Anyone here who is not baptised as a believer should speak to me at the earliest opportunity.

What’s next? We make disciples by going and baptising and the next in line is to teach. If we do not know the teaching of Jesus then how can we teach? How can we know what to say? The apostles were commanded to teach all that Christ had commanded and now this is our calling too.

“Christ’s teachings cover a vast amount of topics—God and man, life and death, true religion and false religion, happiness and sadness, wealth and poverty, time and eternity, heaven and hell, righteousness and unrighteousness,” to name a few. Christ’s teachings also cover not merely the imperatives (“lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,” 6:20) but “also proverbs, blessings, parables, and prophecies.” I also think it is fair to include... what Jesus teaches here (that he is the all-powerful and ever-present Lord and that the church has a commission), as well as what Jesus did in chapters 27, 28 (he died and rose again). ...it is reasonable to include the Old Testament commands as fulfilled in Jesus (5:17–20), as well as the apostolic commands as extensions of Jesus’ will...: we are to preach Christ from all the Scriptures.

Jesus’ teaching ministry is to be our teaching ministry. Christian churches are only Christian if they centre on Christ’s commands. Our mission is not to make Buddhists better Buddhists or Muslims better Muslims or atheists better atheists... but rather to invite all people from all other “faiths” into the one true faith under the commandments of the one true Lord. The Great Commission is exclusively inclusive—it is one Lord for all nations!

[Preach the Word, O’Donnell]

We are then given the power to do what He has commanded.

At the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel we are introduced to the baby Immanuel which means ‘God with us’. Now at the very end of his Gospel Jesus says; “I am with you always”.

This is the power. We have the assurance that we need. Jesus is with us every step of the way. Jesus does not say I will be with you but says: I AM with you. This is no future promise it is right here, right now. He is present with us at all times. If He is for us who can be against us? If Jesus is with us we are not doing all this in our own strength but doing it with the authority and presence of God Himself as we go to make Him known. It is not us against the world - it is God and us for the world which He came to seek and save.

All authority has been given to Jesus which means that those whom we go to are also under His authority - they just don’t know it yet. We go to make known His authority so that they will become disciples of Jesus in the here and now but either way, in the end, the Lordship of Christ cannot be diminished. Everyone will bow the knee and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Our boldness comes from knowing He is with us and that all power and authority is His and therefore we can do what He commands without fear.

And we have further encouragement that His Holy Spirit is with us:

Acts 1:8 NKJV

8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

He indwells us and empowers us to be His witnesses.

John MacArthur Sermon Archive Reaching the World

a group of men who were preparing to climb Mt. Blanc in the Swiss Alps. The evening before the climb a French guide outlined the prerequisite for success. He said you will only reach the top by setting aside all the unnecessary accessories and carrying only bare essentials. Well the next day when they started off for the climb a young Englishman, you might know it, disagreed and proceeded along the following morning not only with climbing equipment but a brightly colored blanket, large pieces of cheese, a bottle of wine, bars of chocolate and a bunch of camera equipment. Under the direction of the guide the group set off behind the Englishman. And along the way the group found first his bright blanket, then his cameras, then his cheese, then his wine and that finally last what was most precious to him his chocolate. Some of you can identify with that. finally they discovered him at the top with nothing.

Unfortunately the plain is full of tents who have decided to keep stuff a long way from the top. Will we be those who fulfil the Great Commission loving the Lord Jesus with heart and soul and strength? Will we be the true disciples who make other disciples? After all, is Jesus not with us?

Benediction

Matthew 28:18–20 NKJV

18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Bibliography

Gaebelein, F. E., Carson, D. A., Wessel, W. W., & Liefeld, W. L. (1984). The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke (Vol. 8). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

Leadership Ministries Worldwide. (1996). Matthew: Chapters 16:13–28:20 (Vol. II). Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide.

MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Panorama City, CA: Grace to You.

O’Donnell, D. S. (2013). Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth. (R. K. Hughes, Ed.). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.