Matthew 28:16-20 - Calling the Nations to Bow

January 2022.

You guys remember what you were doing in January 2022?

Well, for a lot of you, not every one of us, but for a lot of you, you heard me say, please turn with me in your Bible to Matthew chapter 1.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

And we started a journey through the gospel of Matthew.

So here we are in September 2024, and I invite you to turn with me in your Bible to Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

And we'll look at the last five verses of this book.

Won't be the very end of our look at this book.

Next week, Micah is going to kind of look back over the past 33 months that we've been together in this book and give us the essence of what we should take away with us out of Matthew's gospel.

Today we're going to be looking at verses 16 through 20.

Interestingly, Matthew's only resurrection account with Jesus and the 11 apostles.

But even that's kind of secondary in nature because there's something included here, not the ascension passage, but the closing verses of Matthew bring us to what's often known as the Great Commission, in which Jesus gives to his people their marching orders.

These five verses comprise the Great Commission and establish for us what is the most important ongoing agenda for God's people to the end of the age.

And so Matthew here encapsulates in these final verses the primary thrust of the whole book of Matthew.

That Jesus has come to inaugurate a kingdom of God on earth by bringing men and women, boys and girls, into a saving relationship with himself.

Let's read the passage.

The eleven disciples traveled to Galilee to the mountain where Jesus had directed them.

And when they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted.

Jesus came near and said to them, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

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 everything I've commanded you.

And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age.

The first thing I want us to notice in this passage is the setting of the Great Commission, the setting of the Great Commission.

And in verses 16 and 17, we're giving a few little themes that are familiar to us by now, having gone through Matthew's gospel.

And the first one is the location, Galilee.

One of the things that stands out in the resurrection passage, going back to the earlier part of chapter 28, is that when the women come to the empty tomb, they're given a double charge to instruct the apostles to head to Galilee.

In verse 7, the angel says, He is risen from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee.

You will see him there.

And then in verse 10, Jesus himself says to the same women, Do not be afraid.

Go and tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.

And so in verse 16, where do these men go?

Well, they go to Galilee.

That's where they go.

And we shouldn't find this place odd.

This has been introduced to us often as the location of Jesus' earthly ministry, particularly in Matthew's gospel.

It's not only a statement of familiarity, but it's also a statement of assurance to these men of who they're going to meet.

Because before Jesus was crucified, in Matthew chapter 26, he said to them, Tonight all of you will fall away because of me, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

But then he said this, but after I have risen, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.

So here these men hear this term Galilee, and they realize the same Lord before he was crucified is the same Lord after the crucifixion and after the resurrection.

Go to Galilee.

Well, Galilee's been a familiar place for us in Matthew's gospel.

It's mentioned 16 times, more than Judea, more than Jerusalem.

It is the place where Jesus' ministry was set.

In fact, at the very beginning in Matthew chapter 4, it says this: this was to fulfill the prophecy of Prophet Isaiah, land of Zebelan and Naphtali, along the road by the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who live in darkness have seen a great light.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

And those who live in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.

And so Jesus, when he began his ministry in verse 23 of chapter 4, said, He went all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, healing every disease and sickness among the people.

So the light that dawned at the beginning of Christ's ministry in Galilee, it's no wonder that at the end of Christ's earthly ministry, that same light shines in the same place.

But there's something else mentioned here about the setting of the Great Commission.

It's also a mountain.

Go to a mountain, it says in verse 16, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them.

Again, throughout the Gospel of Matthew, we've seen Jesus on mountains, the sermon on the mount, right?

Chapters five to seven.

Mountains where Jesus went for solitude.

Mountains are where Jesus went to meet people.

Mountains in Matthew are connected with Jesus' temptation.

They're connected with places of faith and security.

A theme connected to the book of Exodus, where God reveals himself to his messenger in order to declare his will.

And here we have God in Jesus Christ revealing to his messengers his will of salvation for the nations.

Something else we see in this setting is worship in verse 17.

We see that they worshiped.

Again, in Matthew's gospel, Jesus has been the object of worship.

Worship by the wise men in chapter 2 and verse 2 and 11.

Worship by the disciples in the boat in chapter 14.

Worship by the women after the resurrection in chapter 28.

The devil tried to get Jesus to worship him.

And the response was one that there's only one object of worship, and that is the God of the Bible.

And so Matthew here is teaching us that there's no clash of conflict between the worship of God as a monotheistic Jew and the worship of Jesus, because Jesus is God.

But the setting also brings to us another familiar theme out of Matthew: faith and doubt.

Some doubt it.

We've seen the theme of faith all through Matthew's gospel.

The Roman centurion, the friends of the paralytic, the woman with the discharge of blood, the Canaanite woman.

All of these have expressed clear decorative faith in Jesus Christ.

But also throughout Matthew's gospel, we've seen doubts.

And the ones who have doubted the most have been the disciples.

They doubted in the sermon, OU of Little Faith, chapter 6 and verse 30.

They doubted in the boat, OU of little faith, in chapter 8 and verse 26.

They doubted on the sea, oh you of little faith, when Peter cried out, help me, I'm sinking, save me, Lord.

They doubted by the shore.

They doubted after the transfiguration.

It's no wonder they doubted here again.

Whether they're confronted by the storm, confronted by the lack of bread, confronted by the inability to cast out demons, these disciples are doubters.

While outside the apostolic circle are emblems of faith.

It's a remarkable thing.

And I think it's one of the statements that makes the authenticity of this gospel ring so clear.

These men don't hesitate to talk about how foolish they are, how doubtful they were, how lacking in trust they were throughout the whole ministry of Jesus Christ, even into the resurrection.

They doubt it.

And Matthew is trying to help us understand here that the resurrection was not something they had anticipated, even though they had been told it.

That the resurrection wasn't just requiring some religious enthusiasm and gullibility to believe, but that they could actually doubt the historicity and authenticity of this momentous occasion that Jesus literally rose from the dead.

And that they would have verifiable proof that he did.

Take your hands and touch me.

Thrust your hand to my side, Thomas.

Don't be doubting, but believe.

The doubt was normal.

The belief was something they could grab a hold of because it was more than just enthusiasm.

It was more than just gullibility.

It was irrefutable truth.

Now that brings us into this section that we look at, that we spend a lot of time on.

And the first thing that I want to see beyond the setting of the Great Commission is the source of the Great Commission.

And we're introduced in verse 17 by the first of four all statements.

All authority, all nations, all things Christ commands, all our days in Jesus' presence.

And here is the first, the one that all authority is found in Jesus Christ.

He begins in verse 18 by giving that remark All authority has been given to me in heaven and in earth.

What a word of comfort that must have been to them.

Leaving Jerusalem, the place probably in hiding because of fear that they would be grabbed a hold of as disciples of Jesus who had just been crucified.

Leaving that place, heading out days' journey back to Galilee, sitting there and meeting up with Jesus, and to hear the first things he says to them is all authority has been given to me in heaven and in earth.

That he was and is and always will be their master, that he has come with power, power to protect, and yet also, as we'll see, power to commission them to action.

Now, let us remember that the authority of Jesus Christ prior to this has also been stated.

It's been heavily stressed throughout Matthew's gospel.

Jesus had the authority to do this, to do that, the authority by which he spoke, the authority by which he cast out demons, the authority by which he raised the dead, the authority by which he brought sight to the blind.

This is not to say that the resurrection authority is somehow different than the authority that he had before.

It's not as if it became more absolute, but it does talk about the scope of it broadening.

Now it is all authority in heaven and in earth that has been given to him.

And he now reigns as what we call the mediatorial king, where all of God's authority is mediated through Jesus Christ, God man.

Here we find the answer to that vision in the book of Revelation, where a scroll that was sealed with seven seals was brought out before all humanity.

And the cry there was, Who is worthy to open the seals and to release the scroll?

And John wept because he said, I found no one, no one who was worthy.

And he was told, Don't weep, but look.

And he saw a lamb as if it were slain, coming, the lion of the tribe of Judah.

And it was declared to him, he is the one who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll.

The authority of heaven and earth is his alone.

And here it is.

Here is that climatic vindication of his humiliation that Paul talks about in Philippians.

For this reason, God highly exalted him and gave him a name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, whether it's things in heaven or in earth or under the earth, and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

This statement is the turning point of redemptive history.

The King has come and is reigning over heaven and earth.

This is his dominion, and he's exercising it at the dawn of this new day with a new power, with a new command that we'll get into in just a moment.

All of this is coming out of the foreshadowing of the Old Testament.

The Old Testament in Daniel chapter 7 in verses 13 and 14.

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

The Son of Man, once humiliated in suffering, is given ultimate authority.

Listen to Daniel 7 and see if it doesn't ring with the sound of Matthew 28.

Daniel says, I continued watching into the night visions, and suddenly one like a son of man was coming with the clouds of heaven, and he approached the ancient of days and was escorted before him, and he was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, so that every people, nation, and language should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed.

This Jesus is standing on this mountain in front of his apostles, saying, He is the fulfillment of that prophecy in Daniel 7.

But there's something else.

And it's something we miss a lot because we read an English Bible that's been put into the order it's in for a long time, not realizing that the Jewish Bible actually ended differently.

What's the last book that you read when you read your Old Testament?

Malachi or Malachci, the Italian prophet, right?

Right?

You read Malachi.

What would the people in Jesus' day have finished their reading of the Old Testament with?

Second Chronicles.

Second Chronicles, not Malachi.

This would have been the last thing that they would have read.

In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah, the Lord roused the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom and also to put in writing.

Listen, this is what King Cyrus of Persia says.

The passage carries a lot of similarities.

It carries the similarity of an authority statement in which heaven and earth are invoked.

It carries with it a new beginning for God's people.

Again, another similarity.

It includes the similarity of a directive to undertake a task, there to build a temple.

This one for the people to go out and build a meeting place of God, a temple.

But it is not a building, but the people themselves for the temple.

And it carries with it the idea of God being with those who are directed.

And the similarities don't end there.

These are just the ones I'm going to take the time to mention.

At the end of Matthew, Jesus is offering his great commission, not as a pagan king to theocratic Israel, but he's speaking as the true divine king Jesus to the remnant of the true Israel, the eleven.

And Jesus, just like Cyrus, was given earthly authority to ensure that the temple was built, so Jesus is granted all authority in heaven and on earth where the true greater temple is going to be built, but not one built with hands, but one built by God through the Spirit and the Word to bring new life to people where they themselves would be built up as stones in a wondrous temple of the people of God giving praise to God through Jesus Christ.

Just as Jesus told the woman at the well, it won't be in this mountain or in that mountain, but God is seeking people who will be true worshipers who will worship him in spirit and in truth.

And this is why the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 2 that we are built on the foundation of the apostles, the declaration of the Great Commission, and prophets, the promises of the Old Testament, with Jesus himself being the cornerstone.

In him, the whole building being put together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

So here we are.

The source of this great commission flows out of the types and figures and promises and prophecies of the Old Testament.

And Jesus here is now talking about the dawn of a new day with a new temple being built, with Jesus standing as king over his people who will give him praise.

And so when Jesus speaks about this, he speaks about it with the authority to bring an assurance to these men that from the day that they're given this commission until the day of the consummation of the age, they go with the authority of Christ who is doing his work through them.

And we can enjoy that same sense of comfort.

That brings us now to the substance of the Great Commission.

We have the setting of it, the source of it, and now the substance of the Great Commission.

Here, Jesus gives them four elements of this.

First of all, to go to all nations, to all ethnos, to all tribes, to all peoples.

Not the way we think of nations so much, but the way they would have thought us nations, in their ethnicities, broken up into those smaller areas than what we might call nations.

Matthew's gospel begins with a genealogy.

It begins with a genealogy that traces Jesus' line back to David and then back to Abraham.

Luke goes all the way to Adam, but Matthew starts with Abraham.

Why does he start with Abraham?

Matthew starts with Abraham because with Abraham God made a covenant.

With Abraham, God made a covenant in which he promised within the seed of Abraham all the nations would be blessed.

And every time that covenant promise was reiterated in the Old Testament, in Genesis 18 and verse 18, and Genesis 22 and verse 18, the phrase in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it would have these words, ponta ta ethne, all the peoples.

All nations.

The exact same phrase here, ponta ta ethne, all the peoples.

And so Matthew is returning to the theme that he started with in Genesis, in Matthew chapter one and verse one, that the blessings that were promised to Abraham that would be through him to the whole earth started with the coming of the Christ, Jesus, is now being fulfilled in the exaltation of the Christ, Jesus.

And so this is why he is commissioning us to go, because the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise is being fulfilled through the gospel proclamation, through the apostolic declaration that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior.

It's no coincidence here that Matthew ends with the whole world.

It's exactly how he started.

That Jesus is a fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise of blessing.

The kingdom is come in Jesus Christ.

And this new king is now through his disciples calling people from all nations to submit themselves to his lordship, being filled with the Holy Spirit and creating a new society, one full of love and forgiveness.

Outside that society is darkness, where the flesh reigns rather than the spirit, where Satan, the prince of the power of the air, still holds sway.

But the final goal is that all peoples would be able to cry just as Paul said, that every knee would bow.

So that's the first part.

Go to all nations, but then make disciples of them.

The aim of this proclamation is for that all people everywhere without distinction might become disciples of Jesus Christ.

Just to put it technically, one person wrote this to disciple a person to Christ is to bring him into relationship of a pupil to a teacher, taking his yoke of authoritative instruction, accepting what he says as true because he says it, and submitting to his requirements as right because he makes them.

Basically, he was saying this: that a disciple is a person who identifies with the person who's discipling them, a person who accepts what the person who's discipling them says, and a person who submits to what they're being taught.

Jesus said, make disciples of him.

So we identify ourselves with Jesus, we accept what Jesus says, and we submit ourselves to what Jesus commands.

It's as simple as that.

Those who hear, those who welcome, and those who obey Jesus' teaching.

The Apostle Paul put it a little differently.

He said, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For one believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confess with the mouth, resulting in salvation.

For the scripture says, Whoever believes in him shall not be put ashamed.

For there's no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call upon him.

For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Those who identify with Jesus, those who welcome Jesus, and those who submit themselves to Jesus.

That's what it is.

Now, notice two more things.

First, there's the going to all the nations, there's the making disciples out of all the nations, and then there's baptizing and teaching.

Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you.

Now, I don't have time to get into the Greek construct of all of this, but let me just tell you that baptism teaching do not coordinate directly with making disciples.

They are subordinate to making disciples.

There are a lot to say about that, and I could probably spend an hour just talking about that, but I won't.

But what it's basic, what I'm basically saying is this baptizing and teaching are not the means of making a disciple.

You don't become a disciple by being baptized and then being taught and then becoming a disciple.

You are baptized and taught because you already are a disciple.

Baptizing and teaching don't make you a disciple, but they characterize you as one who is.

The preaching of the gospel results in repentance and faith.

And a person who's turned from sin and turned to the Lord Jesus Christ is going to identify with Jesus Christ.

And baptism is the means by which you identify with your Savior and His people.

And the teaching to observe all things is the means by which you show that you're submitting yourself to that one who is now your Lord, bringing your life in greater degrees of conformity to his will.

Not in a linear way, not in a jump in some higher life that you've all of a sudden gotten into.

But as God moves and shapes your life progressively, you become more and more like the Savior that you love and obey.

Just like C.S.

Lewis said one day, he said, Yeah, when you when you've come to Jesus Christ as your Savior and He begins to make changes in your life, you think, Oh, that's good.

I I needed I needed a couple of those shingles on my roof replaced, and and there was a little painting in the side room that I needed painted.

And, you know, it's a it's a little bit of a disruption in my life when those kind of things are happening.

The repairmen's come in, they brought in the paint, they've traped all over my carpet, but you know, that's okay.

But then all of a sudden you realize that when Jesus Christ comes into your life, he doesn't come in just to patch the roof or to paint a side room.

He's knocking out walls and he's pouring new concrete and he's ripping off the whole roof.

And you say, wait a second, what is this?

And you realize that the king has come into your little cottage, not to just make it a little sweeter, nice retirement home for yourself, but he means to make himself a palace, and he's going to dwell in it.

And so he's knocking out your walls, he's ripping off of your roofs, he's laying out bigger foundations because he is making a place for the king to reside.

Amen.

So baptism is a declaration of identity.

Teaching is a declaration of submission that disciples already have.

And so when you become a part of New Hyde Park Baptist Church, one of the things that we're going to ask you, first of all, is are you a disciple of Christ?

Have you identified yourself with Jesus Christ?

Have you welcomed Jesus Christ into your life?

Are you now submitting yourself to him?

And will you now follow him in baptism to be identified with his people?

That's why we baptize only those who confess with their mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart that God has raised him from the dead.

That's why we don't baptize babies.

That's why we don't baptize infants.

It's why we don't baptize little children, but those who can from the heart speak of that transforming work of God's grace and salvation to bring repentance and faith into their life.

Let me speak last of all, not just to the setting of the Great Commission, and not just the source of the Great Commission, or the substance of the Great Commission, but to this last thing here, to the security and strength of the Great Commission.

Jesus here says, I am with you always to the end of the age.

First of all, it tells us that this task is to be proclaimed not simply by the apostles, but by generations of people after them.

That this is a commission not just for these men, but for all his people.

That this is something we're to do until the day our Savior returns.

That the disciples carry out the ministry of Christ and proclaiming the kingdom of God, the rule of Christ in the lives of undeserving people.

And so we too take up the same apostolic charge and message to preach the kingdom of Christ, the rule of Christ in undeserving people's lives, as he brings new birth to them, as he envelops them in within his people, as they identify with him and learn to walk with him.

But there's also something here that gives us great comfort as we do it, not just the perpetuating proclamation that we have, but also the promise of his presence.

I am with you always.

Now, always is a great word to translate this.

I will not deny it.

But underlying that word always is a Greek idiom.

And idioms are sometimes difficult to translate, sometimes they just don't work across language barriers.

But in this idiom is this pasos tas the whole of every day.

I am with you the whole of every day, even to the end of the age.

You see, it's not just the horizon that Jesus promises his presence with us in, it's also the whole of every day that he promises his presence with us in.

Now that makes me weep with joy.

It's one thing to try to stretch my mind into the day when Christ breaks the clouds and returns and says he's with his people.

But isn't it wondrous to also know that that same Savior says, I'm with you the whole of every day.

Whether they bring happiness or heartache, whether they show us growing holistically or falling into a hole, he's with us every moment of every day.

The presence of the Master to be with us.

What a wonderful way that the one we were introduced to as Emmanuel at the beginning of Matthew, God with us, is the one who leaves us at the end of Matthew as Emmanuel, God with us.

Jesus present with us.

Present with us as we go into all the nations and make disciples of Jesus Christ.

Present with us as those people are baptized and enveloped into the life of the body of Christ.

With us as we go through every day of maturing as his disciples, learning to take on board all those things that he commanded us.

Present with us as we await the day of his return.

Present with us as we see the days will grow evil and worse and worse, but he's still with us, with us until he brings everything to an end and folds up time into eternity.

When he brings his people into his presence, blameless and with great joy, with us always, with us here and with us there, but without us never is our Savior.

Let's pray.

Father, we're so grateful for the gospel that we've been working through these past many, many months.

Thank you for what it's shown us about Jesus Christ.

Thank you for the glorious promises that we've received.

Thank you for the glorious pattern in Christ as He's welcomed the brokenhearted into his presence.

Thank you also for the precepts you give us, for it is in these things that we learn to love our enemies, to love one another, and to love God primarily.

And we thank you for this last declaration of your everlasting presence with us.

Oh God, thank you for the journey we've been on.

And Lord, as we rehearse this journey next week, may we treasure these things as they become part of our lives over these past several months.

To your praise and glory, we ask in Christ's name.

Amen.