The Great Commission

Matthew 28:16-20

Today marks the 165^th sermon in our exposition of the Gospel of Matthew. We began our journey through this marvelous Gospel on Mother’s Day 2022. And what a journey it has been! From the beginning, Matthew has set out to declare that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the long promised and prophesied Messiah-King. Matthew is truly the gospel of the kingdom of heaven or kingdom of God.

In Matthew 1, we saw Jesus’ royal pedigree as “the Son of David, the Son of Abraham” (Matt. 1:1). He was born to be the King, descended from David, yet the very Son of God, Immanuel, through His virgin birth. In Matthew 2-4, we saw His royal preparation. In the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7), Jesus taught His royal precepts. In Matthew 8-12, we saw Jesus’ royal power and authority in His miracles and conflicts with the Jewish authorities. In Matthew 13, Jesus taught us the parables of the kingdom. In Matthew 14-20, we saw more miracles of Jesus, and confessed with Peter that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, who will build His church (Matt. 16). We saw Him transfigured in glory on the mountain (Matt. 17). And He continued His kingdom ministry, teaching and healing, even as He made His way to Jerusalem to be crucified.

In Matthew 21-25 we saw Jesus ride into Jerusalem while the people proclaimed Him King and Messiah. We saw Him cleanse the temple and teach the people during that last week, refuting all challenges to His authority. We saw as the Jewish authorities rejected as King, and plotted to kill Him. In Matthew 26-27 we saw Jesus arrested, tried, beaten, mocked, and crucified as the King of the Jews. Then, finally we witnessed the Lord Jesus Christ risen from the dead on the third day just as He promised (Matt. 28).

Now, in the last five verses of Matthew, we see King Jesus giving His final command to His kingdom citizens. This passage is often referred to as The Great Commission. As Baptists, you probably know it well. I have heard it preached and taught frequently throughout my Christian life. I have preached and taught it myself many times.

In commenting on this passage, John MacArthur has written, “If a Christian understands all the rest of the gospel of Matthew but fails to understand this closing passage, he has missed the point of the entire book. This passage is the climax and major focal point not only of this gospel but of the entire New Testament. It is not an exaggeration to say that, in the broadest sense, it is the focal point of all Scripture, Old Testament as well as New.”¹

The last command of Jesus must be the first priority of the church.[1] It is so easy for us to get lost in the busyness of our daily lives and the programs of the church that we lose focus on the priority that Jesus gave us. Like Martha in her kitchen (Luke 10:38-42), we can be so busy serving the Lord that we are distracted from our priority to know Jesus and make Him known. In this closing passage, I want to examine Jesus’ Great Commission and how it applies to us as people of the kingdom.

1. The Setting for the Commission (Matt. 28:16-17)

Matthew 28:16 says, “Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them.” The disciples are there on the mountain in Galilee in obedience to Jesus’ command. Both before and after Jesus’ resurrection, He told His disciples that He would meet them in Galilee. In Matthew 26:32, on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane, after Jesus told His disciples that they would all stumble that night because of Him (Matt. 26:31), Jesus said, “But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.”

On resurrection morning, the angel told the women at the tomb that Jesus was “going before you into Galilee” (Matt. 28:7). Jesus Himself instructed the women, saying, “Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me” (Matt. 28:10). The Bible doesn’t tell when or where specifically they were to meet, but Jesus had “appointed” or designated such a time on a particular “mountain.” In Matthew 5, Jesus taught the principles of the Kingdom on a mountain. In Matthew 17, King Jesus was seen in His divine glory on a mountain. In Matthew 27, Jesus was crucified as the King of the Jews on Golgotha, Mount Calvary. Now Jesus commissions His Kingdom subjects on a mountain.

Matthew only mentions “the eleven” being present but he does not say they were alone. Jesus telling the women, “He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him,” seems to include them as well. Many Bible scholars believe that this mountain-top meeting was the time that Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 15:6 in which the risen Christ “… was seen by over five hundred brethren at once.” If Jesus told them the time and place He would meet them, I’m sure every believer in Judea and Galilee wanted to be there!

When the disciples came to this mountain, it seems evident that they had no idea exactly what would happen. They knew Jesus would meet them, but they didn’t know what to expect. But they took Jesus at His word and obediently keep their appointment with Him. Obedience to the command of Jesus is the key to effectiveness. The disciples didn’t know all that Jesus wanted of them or what the future held for them, but they were available and obedient.

Have you noticed that God, although He knows the future perfectly, reveals little about it to us ahead of time? Even biblical prophecy is often laden with mysterious metaphors, types, and shadows. The Father knows it is best for us to experience the future one day at a time.

When I began my walk with Christ, I had no idea I would be a pastor. I had a career as an the Air Force officer and engineer in front of me. When Kathy and I married, we had no idea we would raise our children and serve the Lord in Gardner, Kansas, for 19 years. We could not have dreamed that we would be living in Grand Junction serving the Lord in this wonderful church alongside all of you. We had no idea that the Lord would add five more children to our family through foster care and adoption, and then the blessing of grandchildren as well. And right now, I have no idea what God will make of the rest of our life and ministry.

God doesn’t unfold the whole plan for us. He simply calls us to be available, obedient, and faithful. That was the attitude of the disciples, and within a few years, as they proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, they “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6).

The greatest gift we can give to God is our obedience. There is no limit to what God can do through a faithful, willing church. This setting not only shows us their response of willing obedience, but also of reverent worship.

Picture the scene: word has spread, all the disciples of Jesus went up to the mountain in Galilee on the promise that Jesus would appear to them all. I imagine Bartimaus being there along with Lazarus, Martha and Mary. Maybe the woman with the issue of blood, along with the widow from Nain joined them. Perhaps Jairus was there with his daughter. Zacchaeus surely made the trip. Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus. As many as 500 hundred, were there waiting when Jesus appeared.

Matthew 28:17 tells us, “When they saw Him, they worshiped Him.” They had the same response that the women did when they saw Jesus on resurrection Sunday morning. They fell prostrate on their faces before Him in complete adoration. Imagine that whole mass of people bowing before Him. We don’t know what they said, but their sentiment must have been like that of Thomas when he finally saw his resurrected Lord. He said, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).

Then Matthew adds, “… but some doubted” (Matt. 28:17). What a testimony to the truthfulness of the New Testament! If Matthew was trying to cover a lie (as the chief priests told the guards to do, Matt. 28:11-15), why would Matthew be so brutally honest? Matthew probably was not referring just to “the eleven” because they had all already seen the risen Lord in Jerusalem. Probably this refers to some in the crowd who had not yet seen Jesus alive and were amazed and wondered if it was too good to be true. However, like Thomas, they too became witnesses that He indeed was risen.

En masse, they dropped to their knees and Christ was their entire focus. Worship is all about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This is why we gather in this place on the first day of each week—to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Worship is not about what I need, what I want, or what pleases me. It’s not about me! It’s not about you! It’s about Christ. It’s falling down in awe at His feet. It’s seeing the Lord and bowing before Him in humble, reverent, joyful submission and praise. True worship changes you because you have been in the presence of God. True worship is a life-changing experience. It is the foundation and motivation for evangelism and missions. Homer Lindsey once said, “Pastor, if you want your church to grow, teach your people to love Jesus. If they love Jesus they will love the people that Jesus loves and they will take the gospel to them.”[2]

2. The Authority for the Commission (Matt. 28:18)

The Great Commission from Jesus to His church has its foundation in His divine sovereign authority. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead demonstrates His absolute, boundless authority. Matthew 28:18 says, “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”” This is the sovereign authority that Daniel prophesied about when he saw,

“One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And they brought Him near before Him.
Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away…” (Daniel 7:13-14).

Jesus was given His authority by the highest authority, God the Father. Paul says this about Jesus’ authority in Philippians 2:

⁸  And being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death,
even the death of the cross.
⁹  Therefore God also has highly exalted Him
and given Him the name which is above every name,
¹⁰  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
of those in heaven, and of those on earth,
and of those under the earth,
¹¹  and that every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

And Paul says in Ephesians 1 that Jesus exercises that power and authority through His church:

¹⁹ and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power ²⁰ which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹ far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. ²² And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, ²³ which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (Eph. 1:19-22).

The scope of Jesus’ authority is in that little word “All.” There is nothing in heaven or on earth over which Jesus does not have authority. There is not a culture or an ethnic group or a society or a religion or a language where Jesus does not have the right to be worshiped as Lord. He has authority to be King and Lord and Savior everywhere, to everyone. This is the reason He commands us to make disciples of all nations. The authority and supremacy of Jesus over every other religion and culture and society and over all gods is the basis of our world-wide mission. John Piper writes,

Without this declaration of Jesus’ authority, we could never go out confidently to make disciples. On what possible basis do we have any right to tell anybody they should change their whole way of thinking and acting and become a disciple of Jesus Christ? Only one thing could justify such outlandish proselytizing all over the world—that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and has been given an absolute authority over every human being. … He is the absolute sovereign of the universe and one way or the other every knee will bow to him.[3]

In Psalm 2:8, the Lord says to His Anointed Son, “Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession.” The Father fulfilled this messianic promise by giving Jesus all authority in heaven and earth. Abraham Kuyer rightly said: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’”[4]

3. The Content of the Commission (Matt. 28:19-20)

After asserting His authority over all, Jesus commanded His disciples, in Matthew 28:19, “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.” The imperative in that sentence is the command to “make disciples of all the nations.”

A “disciple”, simply put, is a devoted student who follows an esteemed teacher closely so that he could learn how to imitate him. And the task of the Great Commission is to proclaim Jesus to people who don’t yet believe on Him, call them to believe in Jesus, becoming His devoted followers identified with Him in baptism and obeying Him in all things. “Make disciples” literally means to develop learners. A disciple is a learner. A disciple is one who sits at the feet of his master soaking up every word. A disciple is one who desires to conform his life to the life of his master. Thus to “make disciples” means to help people become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.

Since Christ has “all” authority He commissions His disciples to go to “all the nations,” all the ethnic groups on the globe. This takes us back to the call of Abraham in Genesis 12 when the Lord said,

“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
² I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
³ I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen. 12:1-3)

What God promised Abraham is now being fulfilled in Christ, the son of Abraham, and in His people, the church, who are “Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29). All nations are under Jesus’ sovereignty. There are no cultures, no religions, no places near for far beyond the authority of Jesus and His great commission. Our priority as Christ’s people is to be used of God in making disciples “of all the nations.” We are to be “fishers of men” (Mat.4:19). Those who truly are disciples are to become disciple-makers.

How do we go about making disciples? Here Jesus gives us three more verbs, participles that tell us how we go about making disciples of all the nations.

A. We make disciples by Going.

Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples.” More literally, it reads, “Going, therefore, make disciples.”  We are to be “going” out to “make disciples.” Jesus’ commission assumes the idea that we’re “going”; and in the course of our going, we’re to make disciples. “Disciple making is the Christian lifestyle, not a ministerial elective. This is the divinely commanded, all inclusive, non-negotiable mission of the church.”[5]

We are not to wait for potential disciples to come. “Jesus does not expect the world to come to the church. He expects the church to go to the world.”[6] We do not design the church’s ministry and worship to attract unsaved seekers, but to equip believing disciple-makers to go out to “all the nations.”

Coming to church is not the same thing as going to the world. The church is not the primary place of evangelism. Evangelism is to take place in the home, workplace, neighborhood, school… This is the commission Jesus gave us.

B. We make disciples by Baptizing.

Jesus said we are to make disciples, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19).  To baptize literally means “to immerse or dip.” It means being immersed so that you go under the water and come out. In this way, baptism pictures the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It symbolizes our union with Him in His death and resurrection. It identifies us with His people, the church.

Baptism has no saving power but is a powerful statement of faith. Water baptism does not save anyone, or even seal his or her salvation. The Bible is clear that we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, believing in Him that He died for our sins and was raised from the dead for our justification. In commanding us to make disciples through baptism, Christ is saying that our mission is to lead lost people to saving-faith in Christ. To become a disciple means we are willing to follow Jesus. The first place He leads us is to follow Him through the waters of baptism.

Jesus commanded that we baptize “in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” There is no sacramental power in these words, though the church has used them for 2,000 years. Acts contains no reference to these words used in baptism. They are not a ritual or formula but a precise statement of our union with the Trinity. When we are saved, we are united with God in His fullness as the triune God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are to baptize in the “name,” that is, one name because He is one God, not three. Baptizing in the name of Jesus Christ is baptizing in the name of the one true God who exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

C. We make disciples by Teaching.

Jesus continues His commission in Matthew 28:20, saying, “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.”

Believing and being baptized is only the beginning of disciple-making, it continues with the lifelong process of teaching and learning. We are to teach “all things that I have commanded you.” As Paul said to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:27, “I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.” We are to teach it all. We’re to leave nothing out. We are blessed to have all things that Jesus commanded right here in His written word. Our Bible is sufficient for teaching all things, for making disciples. “Disciple making necessarily involves biblical teaching. Man-centered worship, therapeutic preaching, and pragmatic ministry may draw big crowds, but they won’t make disciples.”[7]

And notice that this is not just teaching to impart information, but rather teaching for transformation. We don’t just teach what Jesus told us to do. Rather, we teach people to “observe” what Jesus told us to do. “We’re not to simply fill people’s heads with knowledge; but to help lead them to faithful obedience—to an actual conformity of their lives to the commands of Jesus Christ!”[8] Discipleship is not just bringing people to Christ but bringing people to maturity in Christ. And that is why the teaching ministry of the church is so vital. We need to teach the whole counsel of God, so that we may become obedient believers in all areas of our lives.

We make disciples by going, baptizing, and teaching.

4. The Assurance of the Commission (Matt. 28:20b).

Jesus doesn’t give us this Great Commission, only to slap us on the back and wish us success as He sends us on our way. Jesus concludes His Great Commission with a promise. He said, “lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” He makes sure we understand that, when we go out in obedience to His commission, He Himself goes with us. He also puts the matter in a very specific way; saying, literally, that He is with us “all the days . . .” He isn’t with us just some of the time; but every day that we go out in His name—every day of trial and tribulation that we may encounter in His service—He Himself is still with us. This is the enabling of the Great Commission. We would never dare to take on such a mission by ourselves. But we don’t have to. As your commanding officer, Jesus doesn’t just send you out. He promises to go with you.

Remember all the way back in Matthew 1, the angel told Joseph to name Mary’s child Jesus, “for He will save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). Then Matthew commented,

²² So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: ²³ “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” (Matt. 1:22-23).

Those who faithfully go out into the world to declare the glories of Immanuel will find that He will always be true to His name. The Gospel began with a promise of God with us and ends with the promise of God with us. “The transcendent Lord who is above us is also the imminent Savior who is with us.”[9]

Jesus promises His glorious presence all the way “to the end of the age”. Even up to the time when the very last of His chosen ones hears the gospel and believes, and when all His people are finally in His presence, and when this present age is brought to a close, He will still be faithful to go with His people as they go to ‘make disciples of all the nations.’ The great commission is sandwiched in powerful grace—the sovereign authority and empowering presence of Christ. “He is not powerful and far away. Nor is He present and weak. But he is with us, and He is all-powerful—forever.”[10]

So, we come at long last to the end of our study of the Gospel of Matthew. The whole point of the Gospel becomes clear in this last passage. Matthew wrote so that we would know and worship Jesus Christ the King, becoming His disciples who make disciples. This is the glorious gospel of Christ, that believing in Christ, His death and resurrection, we are saved. This is the message He calls us to preach to all the nations.

Are you a disciple of Jesus? Have you put your faith completely in Him, believing that He died for your sins and was raised for your justification? Have you confessed Him as Lord by following Him in baptism? Are you learning to obey all that Christ commanded us? Are you teaching His words to others? Is He empowering you daily with His authority and His presence?

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[1] HB Charles, The Marching Orders of the Church, https://hbcharlesjr.today/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/The-Marching-Orders-of-the-Church.pdf.

[2] Dr. Homer Lindsay Sr. was the pastor at First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida for many years. I do not remember where I got the quote from.

[3] John Piper, Go and Make Disciples, Baptizing Them, https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/go-and-make-disciples-baptizing-them.

[4] Abraham Kuyper, https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/99035-there-is-not-a-square-inch-in-the-whole-domain.

[5] HB Charles, ibid.

[6] HB Charles, ibid.

[7] HB Charles, ibid.

[8] Greg Allen, The Commission from the King, https://bethanybible.net/index.php/2009/12/13/the-commission-from-the-king/.

[9] HB Charles, ibid.

[10] John Piper, ibid.