SERMON MANUSCRIPT
Oftentimes an end is also a beginning. The end of summer marks the beginning of fall. The end of childhood means the beginning of adulthood. When your life as a single person comes to an end that typically means your life as a spouse is beginning. When you first trusted Christ for everlasting life, your time separated from him ended thus beginning a joyful but arduous process of becoming like Christ. Oftentimes an end is also a beginning.
Such is the case with Matthew’s gospel. Matthew didn’t write this book to simply entertain or preserve history. Matthew, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote this book to move his readers to action, to thrust them into the trenches, to send them into the world on fire.
Today, as we read the end of Matthew’s gospel we’re going to see how it’s just the beginning of something amazing: a great commission for us to take up, in spite of our great imperfection, as we depend on God’s great provision. Matthew wants to send us into the world on fire. Oftentimes an end is also a beginning.
Great Commission
Matthew ends with the so-called great commission. The resurrected Jesus gives his disciples a huge assignment that marked the beginning of a movement, a movement to which we both belong and contribute.
At first, the closing two verses read like a shotgun blast of commands: Go! Make disciples! Baptize! Teach! But it’s quite sophisticated. The great commission is actually one main command surrounded by three supporting commands; one goal with three descriptive activities.
I could say, “Get out there and get a job—make a resume and hand it out.” That sentence has one main demand—“get a job”—and three supporting commands—“get out there” (to get a job), “make a resume” (to get a job), and “hand it out” (to get a job).
Jesus does the same in Matthew 28:19–20. The main assignment is to make disciples of all the nations. Jesus had previously limited ministry to Israel (see 10:5b–6). But things are changing. Even the post-resurrection rendezvous point alerts us to this (vv. 7, 10, 16). Galilee of the gentiles, as Matthew called it in 4:15, was a despised area from which Jesus originally came (2:22; 3:13), to which he withdrew (4:12), and in which he often taught (4:23 et al), much to the chagrin of his opponents.
It’s not an accident that Galilee is the place of their reunion. It’s a mark of the shift in ministry focus that’s taking place. From Israel to all the nations. What’s changed? Well, Israel rejected and killed their King. So, there’s a new assignment: make disciples of all the nations, followers of Jesus in every country, learners of Jesus from all tongues, subjects of Jesus from all tribes. Essentially, Jesus is telling these eleven, “make more of you. Multiply yourselves globally.” Okay, but how?
That’s where the three supporting commands come in. The first is “go.” This is a statement of intentionality. To make disciples you must go deliberately, thoughtfully, and purposefully. It can’t be casual, haphazard, or incidental. Go with urgency.
The second supporting command is found in verse 19. John had baptized the people of Israel, identifying them with the coming Messiah and his kingdom. Jesus is telling his disciples to baptize the people of all nations, identifying them with the risen Messiah and his salvation, a salvation made possible by the triune God—the Father’s plan, the Son’s work, the Spirit’s seal. Baptism celebrates conversion and conversion is the first step of discipleship. So, how do we make disciples? Go and convert, tell people about the salvation available and baptize them into the family of God.
The third supporting command is found in verse 20. It’s not enough to go and baptize. The eleven are being told they must teach, equip, and mature people toward obedience to Christ. Just as a parents’ job isn’t merely producing new humans but also helping them grow-up, so too is the job of a disciple-maker.
So, here’s the great commission: Make disciples of all nations. How? Go, baptize, and teach. Find people, convert people, train people so that they can go and find people, convert people, and train people. This may be the end of Matthew’s gospel, but it’s just the beginning for these first-century disciples.
And it’s just the beginning for us twenty-first-century disciples as well because this is our assignment, our task, our great commission. This is why we exist. We don’t exist to put on a good show once a week, or affect political policy, or address social ails. We, disciples of Jesus Christ, exist to make disciples of Jesus Christ by going with urgency, telling with clarity, and training with fidelity. We gather to exalt our Saviour and equip the saints and we scatter to evangelize the lost, to tell them about salvation by grace through faith in Christ. And then we bring them into the fold to be taught obedience with the rest of us.
Great Imperfection
This is our assignment, brothers and sisters. But, wait, does anyone feel ill-equipped? Yeah, me too. In fact, faced with the great commission, I feel my great imperfection. Who am I to go, tell, and train? Some days I feel I’m barely a disciple.
Mercifully, when we feel our great imperfections, we have company. These first-century disciples felt theirs as well when they got their assignment. As we go back to our passage we see that they were dealing with all sorts of obstacles to faithfulness.
Their grief, for starters. We need to remember that, in verse 1, when the text describes the two Mary’s visiting the tomb, they’re doing so in sorrow. The man, Jesus, whom they knew, followed, loved, and in whom they placed their future hopes had just been tortured and killed before their eyes. They watched his writhing, heard his screams, saw his body go limp. And now all they can do is come to look at the grave. To remember, weep, pray, and grieve.
They’re also dealing with fear. Fear is all over this account (vv. 2–4). These soldiers are so scared at the glorious sight of God’s messenger, they faint. Don’t miss the irony: they’re guarding what they think is a dead body but is actually alive, yet they, who are alive, became like dead men. They’re filled with fear. And they aren’t the only ones (vv. 5, 8, 10).
Add to that the absence of the eleven (v. 7). Why aren’t they at the grave with the women? With their leader being a convicted and now-executed criminal they were on the run and, obviously, in hiding. There’s all sorts of fear here.
There’s also doubt, some of which can be seen in the mirror of what the angel says (vv. 6–7). “He told you, remember? Come, look for yourself. Tell his disciples who are in hiding. Don’t worry, you’ll all see him. I’m telling you the truth.” All this reassurance points to an implicit and, if I’m honest, understandable doubt. They’re reeling from what’s happened.
Then there’s explicit doubt (vv. 16–17). They all worshipped him, but some couldn’t yet get their heads around it. They couldn’t decide yet how they were supposed to respond. Maybe Thomas needed some time to process, maybe Peter was still ashamed of his denials, maybe Matthew himself was embarrassed he’d been in hiding. I’m not sure the exact content, but it says some were struggling with doubt.
Finally, these first-century disciples would have to deal with opposition (vv. 11–15). What are the bad guys to do? Angel or not, the body’s gone. How can they spin this, contain this, and explain this?
What the religious leaders of Israel had publicly told Jesus in 27:42, they’re clearly going back on that word. Instead, they hatch a scheme, leveraging these vulnerable soldiers who, if they tell their superiors they’d fallen asleep on the job and failed to guard a dead prisoner, would likely be put to death. So, they’re at the mercy of whatever the elders suggest. And they suggest a competing narrative, one involving conspiracy and deception. And it worked (v. 15).
The first-century disciples had great imperfection, things potentially hindering them from being faithful to the great commission they were given. They were wrestling with grief, fear, doubt, and opposition.
We face the same. It’s hard to be faithful when we’re grieving a fallen world full of fallen people. It’s hard to be faithful when we’re fearful of rejection, cancellation, and dismissal.
It’s hard to be faithful when we’re confronted with things we don’t understand. And it’s hard to be faithful when the world, the flesh, and the devil are against us. We’re hilariously out-gunned and unqualified for the assignment we’ve been given. Like those in the first-century, we in the twenty-first are pathetic, vulnerable, powerless, and fickle. It’s a great commission but Christ has given it to people with great imperfection.
Great Provision
So, where do we go from here? How could the eleven ever hope to accomplish what they were being told to accomplish? They were going to need some great provision. And they get it in the form of Christ’s unlimited authority and his inescapable presence.
The therefore that starts the great commission in verse 19 points us back to verse 18. How can they make disciples of all nations … teaching them to observe all that he commanded? Because all authority has been given to him. His role as the Suffering Servant has been fulfilled, now he has been given all authority.
Why does he now have this unlimited authority? The text leads us to a clear reason: because of his resurrection (vv. 6, 7, 9–10, 16–17). That the Father raised the Son from the dead vindicates his claim to be the prophesied Son of Man (see Dan 7:13–14; Phil 2:5–11).
Because the tomb was empty, because Jesus rose from the dead after bearing the sins of the world, the Father bestowed upon him unlimited authority. And then, Jesus looks at his disciples, with all their great imperfections, and says, “you’ve got the executive pass.” Go, fly my flag, use my authority, and fulfill my commission.
And, just in case we have moments when we forget to whom we belong and the extent of his authority, just in case we ever get overwhelmed by our great imperfection and the daunting reality of the great commission, there’s another great provision. We can be comforted by his inescapable presence (v. 20). Literally, all the days. All authority, all nations, all things, all the days he is will us until the end of the age, that is, until the assignment is fulfilled.
It’s a great commission and we are riddled with great imperfection. But Christ has given us, his disciples, great provision—his unlimited authority and his inescapable presence. We go under the banner of the King of kings, the resurrected and returning Lord of lords. And he’s with us as we strive for faithfulness. He’s with you, brother, when you go with intentionality to make disciples. He’s with you, sister, when you step out of your comfort zone to share the gospel. He’s with us, when we seek to teach obedience to one another. We have great provision for this great commission.
Multiply With Fearfulness and Focus!
Oakridge Bible Chapel, we are called by our Saviour and Lord to multiply with fearlessness and focus! We are to make disciples everywhere, carrying with us the total authority of him who sends us, comforted by his promised presence, and we’re to do so the way he told us to do it—going, converting, and teaching. This is why we’re here—to multiply with fearlessness and focus.
As summer ends and fall begins, let’s prepare ourselves afresh for this task. What will the next steps of faithfulness to this great commission involve in your life, in my life? How can I go with more intentionality this year? How can I tell with more urgency this year? How can I train with more fidelity this year?
If you feel overwhelmed by those questions, that’s okay. You have what we all have: great imperfection. But, the good news is, we have great provision.I want to encourage us all to spend time praying this week: Lord, increase my fearlessness, increase my focus. Lord, increase our fearlessness, increase our focus.
Josiah has served the Oakridge Bible Chapel family as one of its elders and one of its pastoral staff members since September 2018, before which he ministered as an associate pastor to a local congregation in the Canadian prairies. Josiah's desire is to be used by God to help equip the church for ministry, both while gathered (edification) and while scattered (evangelization). He is married to Patricia, and together they have five children—Jonah, Henry, Nathaniel, Josephine, and Benjamin.
