Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Hello, I'm Josh.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: And I'm Gabriel.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: And today on reading the Gospel, we are studying the episode, the Great Commission.
This is found in Matthew, chapter 28, verses 16 through 20, and also in Mark, chapter 16, verses 15 through 18. Follow along with us as we read.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Now, the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.
And when they saw him, they worshiped him.
But some doubted.
And Jesus came and said to them.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.
So these few verses here, I've probably heard more sermons on these few verses than any other verse in the Bible. In fact, we were talking just earlier this past weekend, I heard a sermon on these verses here.
This is the Great Commission.
As Jesus is prepared to go back to heaven, he is now meeting with his followers one last time, and he is giving this charge to them and this advice. And so if you meet Christians, they've probably heard this before. If not, that's okay. And if this is your first time listening to it, hopefully you'll get something out of this that you can take through your life.
But it starts with, they're going to Galilee. What are the disciples doing in Galilee just after resurrection?
[00:02:24] Speaker B: In the same chapter, Matthew, chapter 28, Jesus Christ instructed the women to go back to the disciples and to tell them, hey, don't forget, we decided to meet somewhere on the mount in Galilee. We don't know exactly the location could have been the place where Jesus delivered a sermon on the Mount, or maybe the Mount of Transfiguration or a place that they used to go to be away from the multitudes. Anyway, it was known for them and they went there. And based on the later recollection in the Book of Acts, it seems to be not only that 11 disciples, but many more together with them.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: And when they get there, they saw him and they worship him.
Worship is adoration and praise and letting God know that we love him, expressing gratitude.
But it says some doubted.
So they're there on the mountain. These are followers of Jesus.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: Yeah. And some are doubting after resurrection, he appeared only to his disciples, to his followers.
And the purpose of those appearances was to remove doubt step by step and to establish this new reality of resurrection as being one of the foundational, maybe quite central pillar of Christianity. Of their preaching later.
And Jesus Christ talked to Mary Magdalene, talked to the women going back to the upper room.
Jesus Christ revealed himself to two disciples on the way to Emmaus, and after that, to the ten disciples in the upper room that night, plus later to other disciples where Thomas was present, because he's the doubter who doubted the first time every time.
Jesus Christ's purpose was to remove doubt and to establish this new reality. And I'm very surprised that after so many days, because this event happened at least some days or maybe one week after the Sunday of resurrection. Yeah, because the disciples stayed in Jerusalem until that festival, Jewish festival, was over. And after that, they need a couple of days to get to Galilee.
So it was some time. They had a chance to exchange notes, to share stories, to talk to each other. And some stilled out.
This is just them or it is us behaving the same way. Is this part of our human nature?
Can we expect that we should experience this level of doubt even after hearing about Christ, maybe experiencing him for a while?
Is this doubt normal?
[00:05:35] Speaker A: I think it's very normal.
My belief in God is solid. I believe God is real. I believe God worked in the past as he said in the Bible. I believe God worked in my life. When I look back in my life, there are events that took place where there's no other logical explanation than God directly wasn't directly involved in my life.
So I have all that. I'm a pastor, everything. But there are still times where the question comes up, is God really out there?
And there's times where it pops in my mind and it doesn't stay for long because it's easy for me to go back and look at the evidence. But there are times where as a pastor, as someone who spends my time with God, it does pop up as.
[00:06:33] Speaker B: Related to a special situation when you really want God to show up, to provide, to guide, to speak to you directly.
[00:06:41] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And when we're going through a trial, when something in life is not the way we think God would act, we look for God.
And sometimes we question, are you out there? Do you care? So I don't think we should be worried if we find that in our lives.
What we need to do is we need to build a bank of memory so that when these times come, we can look back and say, oh, God answered that prayer. God answered this prayer. God. You know, just this past week down at my parents, we had brought my cat down and my sister's cats, and they weren't getting along.
And I remember I was about to pray. And I said, okay, I'm going to pray for these cats. And just as I started praying, they started fighting. And when I brought the cats up, all of a sudden, peace.
And for the rest of the trip, they were at peace. And they were laying next to each other and everything. And, you know, it's evidence that we need and we need these evidences in our lives so that in those times of doubt, we can look back and say, God has led me in the past. God has been with me in the past, and so I can trust that he will be with me in the future.
So getting into this commission, it says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Why does Jesus start with this? What is the importance of this statement?
[00:08:13] Speaker B: Because in verse 19, there is a commandment which is somehow different than other commandments Jesus Christ gave his disciples.
Go therefore.
And when he says, go therefore, they will go without the physical presence of Jesus Christ.
They were asked to go. In Luke chapter 9, the 12 disciples, and in Luke chapter 10, the 72, and says, Go ahead of me. Don't forget, I'm, you know, a little bit behind you. If something happened, I'm here to watch you. If there is a problem, I'm around.
This time, you go.
But Jesus Christ said, and I am with you always. But in a different form.
It is a transition from the incarnated Jesus to the resurrected Jesus.
In the incarnated form, his divinity was enshrouded and limited to one physical body.
After resurrection, he is manifested through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
He can be through the Spirit everywhere.
And in the incarnated form, he was visible. In the resurrected form, he was not visible. This is why he trained his disciples. He showed up multiple times amidst them to helped them realize that his human nature after resurrection is somehow different. He can appear, he can disappear.
And this time he said, go, therefore, I'm going to be with you in a different form. But don't forget, I have all the authority not only to ask you to go, but I have the authority to be with you always.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: And that authority is so important.
When I was younger, I would sell books door to door. And it's terrifying going up to these houses and not knowing how people are going to treat you. I can't imagine doing it now in the environment we live in.
But there were two instances where the either civic government or in another instance, it was an Amish community that I just happened to knock on the door of the head of the Amish community. And both of them gave me the authority and they said, use my name, go through and tell people, you have my authority to be here.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: Beautiful.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: And it took away the fear. I walked up to the doors, head held, hide everything.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: Amazing.
[00:11:00] Speaker A: I'm here on their authority. And when I came on their authority, people listened, people bought books and donated, and it made life so much better. And so when we go out and we make disciples, we're not doing this for our own good. We're doing this on the authority of the God of the universe in a.
[00:11:25] Speaker B: Specific country or a government.
The government authority is delegated to ambassadors which represent that government or that country into foreign nations.
And those ambassadors have a lot of power because they're backed by the power of the government, by their military, by their political leaders, people with influence.
It is exactly what you just shared.
An ambassador can be bold, can be direct, because he or she knows the authority behind.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
And so the charge that they're given is to make disciples.
And that is when Jesus could have said lots of things. Go conquer lands, go establish governments, go make schools, go do a lot of things.
He could have even said, go feed the hungry and care for the sick. These are important things that Christians are supposed to do. Right.
But he says, go make disciples.
This is the call of the Christian above everything else. Now, it doesn't mean we shouldn't do other things. We should feed the hungry and clothe the naked and care for the poor.
But our number one goal is to make disciples.
[00:12:47] Speaker B: And I like to link Matthew 28 to mark chapter 16, when even that is a later interpolation and might might be marked this way in some of the modern translations.
The idea is go and preach the gospel.
[00:13:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:04] Speaker B: And that is the first step in making disciples. And those who receive the gospel become disciples and they are going to be baptized.
And later in verse 20, in Matthew 28, they will be taught or trained in the same way Jesus trained his 12 or the 72 disciples.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And so the disciple making that started with Jesus and. Well, I probably it took place before then. You know, John the Baptist was making disciples. And so disciple making process that has started thousands of years ago has continued and now it's outturned. We are the generation that is to make disciples and make disciples for the next generation and go and teach them all things that God has taught us to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And this is not pastors.
He's not just directing this. He's directing this to every Christ follower that we are to be out there and we are to do these things and God has promised he is with us always and I love the even to the end of the age as we get down to the end and God's protection is withdrawn from the earth and things get more and more chaotic this commission never goes and God is still with us Let us pray Father God we are so thankful that Jesus has given us this commission Amen that he has all authority on heaven and earth that he is with us always and as we go out and share the good news as we go out and make disciples Father I pray that Jesus will be lifted up he will be glorified that he's the one that people see that it's not us.
I pray Father that you help us to to be active in that the listeners in their lives to find ways where they can use what they love doing to make disciples for Jesus. We pray these things in his name Amen Amen.
