Matthew 28:16–20
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Go and make disciples from all the people in the world.
This is the happy end to Matthew’s book of Good News. It prepares the way for the future. Jesus said that his disciples would do even ‘greater things’ than he himself had done. (Read John 14:12.)
The last words of Matthew’s book are for all Christians. (Actually, the whole book is for all believers.) Jesus was talking to the 11 disciples (verse 16). But what he says is for all his disciples ‘until the end of the world’ (verse 20b). So, these words are not mainly for leaders. They are for each believer. We may say that we are Christians. Then we must obey his command.
There is only one command in these verses. It is: ‘Make*disciples’ (verse 19). It is the responsibility of all believers. Of course, we must know what it means to be a disciple. Then, we must know how we can ‘make’ a disciple. Jesus explained:
► We must go. It is the first of three actions to achieve our aim. (Our aim is to ‘make disciples’.) Where we go depends on the gifts that God has given to us. We can start with our friends and neighbours. There are the people with whom we work too. God might ask us to go to another country. We call those who do this ‘missionaries’. But the job is the same. So, we are all missionaries, in the place where God wants us to be.
► We must baptize. Baptism is a sign that a person is a Christian. Other people can see that a person is joining with God’s people.
► We must teach all the things that Jesus taught us to obey. We do not teach truths that are just ideas. We teach truths that change lives. They are truths that have already changed our lives. So, we show people by the way that we live. And we speak to these people too. This is how we ‘make disciples’. How we live must show that our message is true.
So, we must decide what is the best way to tell people the Good News (gospel). We must each decide this. And we must decide it as members of a church. This is our responsibility. Jesus tells us why he has asked us to do this. He has ‘all authority in heaven and on earth’ (verse 18). He is master of all. That is why he is called Lord Jesus. So, all people have a duty to serve him.
But Jesus knows what we are like. So, he tells us two things. First, he gives us the promise of his power. (See verses 18–19. All power belongs to Jesus. And he will give us all the power that we need.) We cannot know the exact reason why some disciples had doubts (verse 17). Perhaps it does not matter. This is because we learn what the first disciples were like. They were weak, nervous people, just like we are. We could not achieve any good thing if we trusted ourselves. This is a comfort to know.
We have no resources of our own. But we have the resources of Someone who has all power. That is sufficient. As believers, we expect so little. This is because we doubt the words of the Lord Jesus. He does not promise constant success. But he does encourage us to expect results. (Although there may be a long delay.)
Then, Jesus gives us the promise that he is with us (verse 20). And he promises that he will always be with us. This does not only make us happy. It gives us the resources for our task. And what wonderful resources they are. He gives us his power. But he does not just leave us to do the job. No, he himself comes with us. So, there is always a minimum of two of us! There might be hard times. There might be times of joy and success. Whatever happens, he is next to us. What a comfort it is to know this.
Questions
1. What tasks must I do on my own (but with the help of Jesus)? What tasks must two people or a group of people do? What can we learn from the answers?
2. Someone has said that churches exist for the benefit of non-members. How much is this true of your church group?
3. The Lord Jesus told us to go to ‘all people everywhere’. Christians seem to concentrate most on Africa and Asia. Why is this true? What other places need help?