Therefore, Go
Matthew 28:16 – 20
Last Sunday we celebrated Pentecost, it is the day when a Church, a ministry of Believers was born. Human Jesus had left the disciples and gone back to resume his position as Divine Jesus seated at the right hand of God the Father. At his Ascension Jesus once again promised the arrival of the Holy Spirit and on Pentecost the Spirit arrives bringing the Divine Wind, the Holy Fire and the Apostolic Words to the Disciples as well as to the thousands in attendance from all over the Jewish world.
By the end of that day the Disciples were equipped to Begin Their Work in evangelizing to the world and more than 3000 were baptized by the Spirit to begin their journey and maturation as Christians. So today we continue our own spiritual journey, our Christian maturation, our continued transformation into the person God has created us to be, called is to be, needs us to be.
Over the past few weeks we have spent a considerable about of time in the Gospel of John. We studied the seven I AM statements of Jesus contained in the Gospel of John, and two weeks ago we studied the Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer as Jesus prayed to God thanking Him for the disciples that God had chosen for him and asking God to protect them because Jesus had finished his work and was returning.
As I have mentioned many times the Gospel of John is markedly different especially from the Upper Room to the Ascension. But we are leaving John for a while and will be spending some time with Matthew. Matthew is different. It spends only 18 verses from the time that Jesus is raised until He leaves. Our study today is the last five verses of Matthew but if last week was the beginning of the Church of Believers, this week is the mission statement for that Church, “Therefore Go and make disciples of all nations”. What greater way is there to follow up the enabling and empowering story of Pentecost than with the sending command of Jesus through the Great Commission!
As our lesson opens it is probably a week or two before the Ascension and we see Jesus had told the disciples to meet Him in Galilee at a mountain, a mountain that we aren’t sure of but it apparently was familiar to them. By the way mountains are significant in Matthew because whenever a mountain is mentioned in his Gospel there is a lesson of significance included in the story.
For example in Matthew 5 Jesus preaches the Sermon on the Mount, laying down what can be considered the New Testament’s version of the Ten Commandments on a mountain. Then in Matthew 17, Jesus is transfigured with Moses and Elijah, showing us the divinity of Jesus. Now here in Matthew 28, we see Christ will send His disciples on a mission which will give them and those believers that follow them their purpose, their mission, putting meat on the bones of the Body of Christ.
Jesus begins by saying that, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Jesus is in charge. Last week we saw that Jesus was thanking God for the disciples that once were God’s but now belong to Jesus. What was yours is and now mine Jesus said. And what is mine is yours he said.
So now Jesus is telling the Disciples all of God’s authority has been given to him. God used the authority to send Jesus into the world to transform humanity and now Jesus is using that same authority to send us out into the world to also transform mankind. “Therefore Go” Jesus says.
We have a mission from God. “Therefore Go make disciples, baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teach them, and remember”. It is a fourfold mission; Go, Make disciples, Baptize in the Name and to Remember. Each is vital to us, to mankind and to God! Let’s look at them
First Go: We aren’t the church when we sit still. Sitting still may be necessary for a time but it is only in preparation for going and for being the church at work in the world. The idea is that with His presence and authority behind us and in us, we can step out of your comfort zone and go!
Commentator S.K. Weber says, “The point is that we believers are active; we are not meant to be stationary. Going means crossing boundaries to transform others—going across the street, going to dinner with an unbelieving friend, going into the inner city, going beyond one’s comfort zone to make the gospel accessible to the lost. Living life is “going” with a purpose, every day.” Therefore Go!
Second Make Disciples. The word “disciple” means “learner” or “pupil” so the idea here is to “make learners.” A disciple is not simply one who has been taught but one who continues to learn. As soon as you and I become a Christian, we are a disciple, a learner. Therefore Go means to acknowledge the command to create relationships, to build up people, to engage with the world as it is so that we can help people see the world as it could be.
Therefore Go is about the long haul, the narrow way leading to the narrow gate that few will enter. He doesn’t say, “Go win souls.” He says, “Make disciples.” Souls will be won in the process; don’t worry about that. But we’re not the soul winners the Holy Spirit is; we are the disciple-makers. Therefore Go and make learners of Christ!
Thirdly we are told to Baptize; by that we are to invite people into the community of faith, into a lifelong formation of self and soul. Baptism as you know is an outward expression of an inward change. It is a public declaration to the community of faith that we would like to follow Jesus and be His disciple and be about the Great Commission.
So baptism is not what one does to be saved; but it is what a saved person does. The idea is to bring people into the community where they can become learners and they can publicly confess Jesus through in baptism. Therefore Go and baptize them into the community of Believers.
Teach. Jesus says “Teach them to obey everything I taught you”. The word translated as obey could also be translated as keep. Teach them to keep everything Jesus commanded you. Keeping sounds different. It sounds like there is a treasure to share, some wisdom, some insight, some joy, and some hope that we received from Jesus, and now he wants us to give it away; to give it so that others can keep it. Therefore Go and teach others to keep what Jesus has given us.
Lastly Remember. “Remember I am with you always, to the very end of the age”. Yes it is true. We believe it is true. We know it is true. We know that we can’t do half of what we have done, a fraction of what we want to do on our own. Only by his presence can we put one foot in front of another. Only by his presence can we issue one more invitation, care for one more soul, one more neighbor. Because we remember, we are not alone.
It is His presence that empowers us. It is Him always drawing near despite our hesitations that keep us going. Every time you live out the Great Commission in any form or fashion, Jesus is there. Therefore Go and Remember he is with you.
Hear the Good News my Friends………
“Therefore Go” is how God works, how God has always worked. He is a sending God. He sent Moses, He sent Eijah, He sent Abraham, He sent David, He sent John the Baptist and now He says I send you, Therefore Go!
But we must remember we are here today because Jesus was sent first to make disciples, learners out of us. The Holy Spirit was sent to baptize us through the Wind, Fire and Word at Pentecost. Human Jesus was taught to obey, to keep what his Heavenly Father taught him. We see that most obviously in the Garden and on the Cross.
Finally we can remember all the things that Jesus has done for us, we remember that he is always with us because the unseen promised Spirit can always be felt around us, giving us guidance, encouragement, comfort and courage.
Therefore Go dear ones into the world and transform the people that God sends your way into disciples of Jesus Christ in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit. You have been given all the authority of Jesus to transform the world one person at a time, Therefore Go! Amen.