Famous last words - those stupid things people say before catastrophe strikes. Perhaps you’ve heard them uttered, perhaps you’ve said them yourself.
With words like that we know disaster is not far behind. But famous last words are spoken by all sorts of people, people who should know better.
When it comes to Christianity other famous last words include the seven last words of a dying church: “We never did it that way before.” Also foolish were the words of the Directors of the East India Company, when they, over two hundred years ago, petitioned British Parliament, saying, “The sending out of missionaries into one Eastern possession is the maddest, most extravagant, most costly, most indefensible project which has ever been suggested by a moonstruck fanatic." It was the foolish misunderstanding that God had no use for missionaries or for the gospel going into new lands. The Great Commission of Matthew 28:19-20 was given to the Apostles and had been fulfilled, they thought. There were no more lost to be won for Christ. In opposition to that, William Carey, an inept cobbler, who believed that God’s command to make disciples was still in force, went to India despite the famous last words of politicians and pastors. He went, learning Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Dutch, French, Sanskrit, Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi and Telugu. He went despite the famous last words of those around him and because the famous last words of Jesus Christ, words that were not foolish, but powerful. This morning we’re going to look at the famous last words of Jesus, words He spoke shortly before His ascension, words with which Matthew concludes his gospel. These words are often called the Great Commission, for in them we have Christ entrusting to His Church their final instructions which detail what the church is to do.
THE CONTEXT OF THE GREAT COMMISSION (Verses 16-18a) The final words of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel are preceded by a very sober, but very comforting picture. As we saw last week, Jesus, having risen from the dead, told Mary Magdelene to tell the disciples, His frightened brothers, to go to Galilee and meet Him there. Verse 16 opens with the 11 remaining disciples going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. If I were writing the gospel, I would have ended it, having Jesus say a few parting words to His followers and then be gone. But with stark realism Matthew includes that next disturbing phrase, “but some doubted.” Scholars try to make sense out of this interesting statement by saying the doubt occurred before, but now they were convinced, or the doubters were someone other than the 11, for how could they worship and doubt at the same time? I don’t think we have to soften the passage. This same word for doubt Matthew used of Peter who in his trust of Jesus walked out on the water and, when he doubted soon began to sink, but while sinking, called to Jesus. Worship and doubt can come together. It is sober to think that after all the miracles, after the horror of the Crucifixion, the wonder of the Resurrection, there would still be doubters. But doubters among the close band of the 11? Jesus’s resurrection did not instantly transform men of little faith and faltering understanding into spiritual giants. Some sort of nagging questions remained. They may have wondered if the stress of the past weeks was more than they could believe. Others likewise were uncertain. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus were unclear that their dinner partner was Jesus until after He had left. The disciples on the boat in Galilee engaged Jesus in a fishing discussion until it occurred to John who it was. Yet when we consider that they could be both worshipers and doubters at the same time is also a great comfort, too. That is often the way the Church is. We are all a bit bipolar, living lives between worship and doubt. Who here hasn’t doubted, questioned, hesitated in their faith? It is to doubters such as these confused disciples on the hill or here in this room that we have a wonderfully comforting command given. Jesus does not correct or attack the doubt. Rather He commands us to go forward. Notice what Jesus does to these worshipful doubters. He comes and reminds them of His own authority and commissions them to move ahead throughout the world and make other disciples. The context of this command is not given to the super-spiritual, not to those who have no doubts and have no questions regarding carrying out Jesus’s instructions. It is given to people like each of us sitting here. These famous last words are given to people like us. THE COMMAND OF THE GREAT COMMISSION (Verses 19-20a) The Church is commanded to make disciples (verse 19a) The first part of the command is “go” While in English this is translated as a command, in Greek it is a participle, modifying the verb “make disciples.” Some try then to translate it as, “while you are going...” But in Greek, when a participle comes before an imperative, a command, it takes on the force of the command. There is a certain assumption here - that the Church will be a Church on the move. This verse has been abused by well-intentioned motivational missionaries to get people to consider going overseas. Yet we obey its intent not just by going into a cross-cultural setting, but by going whereever God places us. The disciple-making necessitates movement; it requires us to move out from our familiarity to establish relationships with people we may not know very well. In the next verb we have the heart of the command, the imperative, giving us the core of what Jesus wants His church to do: make disciples We are not told to just tell others, not told just to try to witness, but this command is stated not as something we should try to attempt, but something that we should complete. Throughout Matthew the disciple is one who is told to deny himself and follow Jesus, one who loves Christ more than parents, children, culture. The disciple takes up the cross, knowing death to self is what is demanded, but that eternal life is what is offered. Disciples are learners, followers. These disciples are made not in the heat of an emotional moment, but over the long haul of teaching, training, deciding who Christ is and what He has done. This process of disciple-making is not focused on individuals, but in a much broader context: nations. What does it mean to disciple the nations? Discipleship looks to the nations, ethnos, from which we get our word, ethnic. The ethnos refers to the various cultures, customs, social groups that make up our world. We are commanded here to disciple, to bring to bear the person and work of Christ, to all aspects of culture. We are not told to disciple all men as though the individualistic concerns are enough. Nor are we told to disciple all kingdoms, as if the interest was purely political. Rather we are called to begin deep within, involving the personal, spiritual aspects of life, but then to never neglect all aspects of life: social, legal, academic, economic, and political. This movement from people to nations was well seen in the early centuries of the Church. At a time when there were no missionary sending agencies, no institutional structure, no organized efforts, in 300 years from the death of the John to AD 400 the whole of the Roman empire, which represented the civilized world, was introduced to Christianity. This process has not stopped. Christ’s famous last words still are true today. We are called as a Church to continue this process. For this reason Cornerstone supports people around the world to continue the spread of the good news about Christ. We support people in southeast Asia translating the Bible in the people’s own language, others moving onto the field in South America, Africa. The money that you give goes to beginning new churches as well as helping developing countries in the area of education and economics. Ten to fifteen percent of our budget goes to support these works. This summer we are hopeful that we will send one of our own out to Europe for several weeks, as Jamie Merckle goes to Belgium for training and then to Wales to share the gospel in a variety of ways and places. Lord willing, in a year or two Mike Spranger will be able to go back to Europe and be a part of the disciple-making process. That is a process which we are all a part of, not just in our giving, but in our daily lives, too. The Church is commanded to initiate disciples (verse 19b) What follows the central command of "make disciples" helps to flesh out what that process looks like. Making a disciple is not a quick event, but a process which begins as the person is brought into the Church, initiated. The first means of discipling, though, seems rather odd: “baptizing.” If you were to take a poll of most Christians as to the place of baptism in the whole Christian life experience, you perhaps would find this at the end of a very long list. But Jesus puts it up front. For many people baptism is just getting wet, but there is much more. It is more than just a ceremony; it is the means by which God brings those who are being made disciples into the visible body of believers. Baptism is “in the name.” This initiation identifies one who is treated as a disciple, as one who is following. The baptism is in the name of the triune God. This is another way of saying "into the possession of God." In baptism the person comes under new management, transferred to new ownership. Just as circumcision marked a person as a Jew in the Old Testament, so baptism marks us as belonging to God. It is not just a symbol of that inclusion or a ceremony of initiation. It is the agent of being brought into the body; it is the means of God’s grace. This baptism is into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is a great Trinitarian passage. One name, one God, three persons. In baptism we are possessed by the loving Father, the life-giving Son, the indwelling Holy Spirit. These words are not just formulaic statements we pronounce when one is presented for baptism. They delineate the great truth that our One God is three persons, each with a role in our salvation. We are owned by this one God. The Church is commanded to instruct disciples (verse 20a) Baptism is the beginning, but by no means the end. If you have been baptized, your discipling process is far from over. Being a disciple and making disciples will take the rest of your life. Now most of us, once we’ve graduated from school, like to think we’ve learned enough, that our education is complete. But as a Christian it is never over. Just as baptism is the initiation to being a disciple, then comes the instruction as a disciple. The goal of this teaching is obedience to what Christ taught. This is not education for education’s sake. What we are to learn is not mere dogma steeped in abstract theological theory, but it is content to be obeyed. This content is what Matthew’s gospel is all about. Jesus does not envision a time when His teaching will be seen to be outmoded or untrue. What He has taught the disciples is to be passed down to all the disciples. What is it that Christ taught? This phrase takes us right back into the heart of Matthew’s Gospel; it takes us back to the impossible command to love God and our neighbor as ourselves; it takes us back to the call to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, to the call for absolute obedience to God’s Law, to the Decalogue. But that is not all that Christ taught. We must obey all that, but our obedience does not begin there. It begins as Jesus said on the Sermon on the Mount, that we must be poor in spirit, knowing our poverty before God, that we have nothing to offer. We must mourn our condition, knowing we fail God in thought, word and deed. We can come to God with meekness, hungering for a righteousness that is foreign to us. Obedience to all Christ has commanded us is an obedience that comes out of faith. It is an obedience that begins with grace, as God calls us to be His, places His name upon us in baptism and we trust Christ’s obedience in our place. Looking to Christ, then we can live the obedient life God calls us to live. Only then can our obedience far exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, which Jesus demanded. Your process of learning what Christ taught will never come to an end. You have a life long opportunity to learn, to better understand the Law of God and see how it utterly condemns you. You also have a lifetime to be reminded that that condemnation is taken from you by Christ and He gives you His own righteousness for clothing. This is all a tall order. But as Jesus gives us commands to be obeyed, He then gives us the promise by which the command may be fulfilled. Having seen the context and the command, let us look at - THE COMPETENCE TO FULFILL THE GREAT COMMISSION (verses 18b, 20b) Jesus’s authority makes us competent to make disciples. How can we as a Church make disciples? Look back at verse 18. The one who commands has authority to do so. If I tell you that you may skip paying your taxes this year, you may think that is great, but I hope you would not believe me. But if an IRS agent tells you, then signs a legal document permitting you to do that, you have authority. But that authority is not just a go-ahead. Jesus’s authority is our power to do so. All spiritual and religious power in heaven is Christ’s, given to us. The impossible reality of our sins removed, of Christ’s righteousness applied to us, the powerful authority of faithful obedience to God’s commands is at our disposal. Christ’s full authority here on earth is likewise at our disposal. As sovereign God, all social, political, and economic power on earth are in His hands. He is in charge around here. The powers that seem to be so powerful are no longer imposing. Christ holds the trump card. Jesus’s presence enables us to make disciples. Matthew’s gospel begins with the angel telling Joseph that the child born to Mary was Emmanuel, God with us (1:23) and now Jesus reminds us of this wonderful truth. His authority guarantees the power to fulfill the command to make disciples and His presence enables us to accomplish the task. Jesus’s grace precedes, accompanies, and follows disciples’ obedience; the indicative of Christ’s strength goes before, alongside, and after the imperative of disciples’ responsibilities. We are covered, supported, surrounded. There is nothing for us to fear. The work God calls us to will be accomplished because of this presence. Christ’s presence is promised not as a future possibility. He does not say He will be with us when times are tough, but that He is already with us. His presence continues to the end of the age. His presence is not just “most days” or “good days” or days disciples feel spiritually fit, but on all days Jesus is present with them. Every single day of your life, Jesus is there. Christ possess all power; He promises His presence. His command to make disciples is not beyond us, for all He asks is that we look in faith to Him to provide us with the grace to accomplish the task He has given to us. These are His famous last words, so different from our mistaken sayings and confused muddlings. We as a church are called to be at this task of making disciples, willing to be used by our gracious King to extend His reign to all nations. Our job, impossible to do alone, will be accomplished because we have been promised the King’s power and presence. |