Matthew 28 - The One Thing The Church Doesn't Get to Vote On!
The Great Commission
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.”
As we finish the first gospel of Matthew, he ends with some of the most important verses in all of the bible. These verses contain the clear direction Jesus gives to his disciples before he ascends to heaven to be with His Father forever. They continue to be the marching orders for church today. As someone has said, "We don't get to vote on the Great Commission."
Though there are many types of churches: Catholic, Protestant, Anglican and Pentecostal; we are all given the same mission, "To make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit." At the heart of the Great Commission is to make disciples. Just what does that mean and how do we do it?
Since Jesus made his own disciples who he left the Great Commission with, it might make sense to see how he did it before we try. Jesus spent three years living with 12 men, who were called his "disciples". The word "disciple" means "learner". We get our word "discipline" from this word. To discipline oneself is to learn how to do something. In Jesus' day when you were a disciple of someone, you spent your whole life learning from them. Though Jesus spent time alone and spent time teaching in public, he spent most of his time with his disciples, "doing life together".
So when Jesus gives his disciples these last words it is not surprising what he says to him. He basically is saying, "What I did with you the last three years, go do it with the rest of the world." The best word for disciple is "apprentice". The disciples spent time in a three year apprenticeship program under Jesus' tutilege Now he was calling them to do the same with others.
So, if Jesus spent three years training twelve guys and one flunked out, are we to think we can do it any better than he did? And how did they do? Well, they changed the whole world and started a movement that is still growing strong today reaching millions of people each year in Jesus' name.
The problem today is sometimes we think we can make disciples in easier and faster way. We are sometimes more interested in making numbers than making disciples. But the problem is Jesus really never talked about making numbers. Making disciples is not easy, trust me I have been attempting to do it for 20 years as a pastor in Lutheran churches. For that matter, being a disciple is not easy either. We all have moments where we depart from what we have learned from Jesus and do our own thing. But fortunately Jesus never leaves us or forsakes us and always draws us back to him.
The church will always and only have one mission, to make disciples who make disciples. The good news is that when we do this, we are not alone. Jesus says when we are making disciples that He will be with us until the end of the age. So let's celebrate that we get to be a part of the greatest mission on the earth, making disciples. When we get to heaven there will be only thing that will really matters. Have we been a disciple of Jesus and have we made any for him?
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