Addeddate

2026-10-15 10:14:11

Church

CEDAR CREST CHURCH OF CHRIST

Duration

46.2

Identifier

CEDAR_CREST_CHURCH_OF_CHRIST-19907334_the_great_commission_matthew_28_16_20

Keywords

Jesus Christ, Great Commission

License

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Original_url

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2140175/episodes/19907334-the-great-commission-matthew-28-16-20.mp3

Scanner

Internet Archive Python library 3.0.2

Text

These are the last words Jesus spoke to his church before ascending to his father. It's Matthew 28 verses 16 to 20. 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, them. All authority and 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. Amen. Amen. Well, we have been in the gospel of Matthew, I am told, for four years. If you've been here for the entire series, I feel like it's the end of an era. It's bittersweet to me to come to a close, but as we do, it's not just an end to a glorious study of this gospel. gospel, I believe it is also a new beginning, if you will, because we have now arrived at the Great Commission that the Lord has given to His disciples and to the church for her marching orders until the day He comes back. And rightfully so, I want you to think about what we have learned so far in the gospel Gospel of Matthew, beginning with the genealogy of Jesus Christ in chapter 1, that he is the offspring of Abraham who was promised in Genesis to bless the nations of the world. That he is from the line of David as promised, and he would sit on the throne of David and be king of not only the Jews, but of the world. Second Samuel 7, that he would be born of a virgin. Isaiah 7, that he would be the seed of the woman who crushes the head of the serpent we read all the way back in Genesis 3.15, that he would be Emmanuel, God with us, and and the government will be on his shoulders, Isaiah 7 and Isaiah 9, that he would be the Messiah that John the Baptist was preparing the way for. Comes from Isaiah again. That he would be the one who has not come to abolish the law or the prophets, but to fulfill the law and the prophets, that he would be the one who would preach with authority, just like the Old Testament said he would, that he would be the one who would preach the good news and heal the death and the blind and the lame and raise the dead, just like Isaiah 35 and Isaiah 61 said the Messiah would do, that he would be the suffering servant and the the Messiah would be and do." In fact, the end of Luke's gospel, Jesus says, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. And that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations. This is how the gospel of Matthew ends with the great commission summarized in a beautiful form that I believe is easy to remember. And I personally believe that the great commission has been the marching orders for the church for the the last 2,000 years, and it is still the marching orders for the church today, because the gospel of Matthew and every other gospel has been written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. That comes from John's gospel. This is the main reality in the last words of Jesus in the gospel of Matthew. Matthew. I want you to hear this. He and He alone has all authority over this world, which is why we must obey His command to make disciples of all the nations of the world, and that He is with us all the time until this mission in the world is complete. Did you hear it? All which is why I've been praying fervently all week long for the Lord to reignite a passion in our hearts from this text to love the lost from our neighborhoods to the nations. Make it our churches greatest passion to make disciples of all nations as the Lord is bringing the nations here to us in our neighborhoods. Think about our ESL program near a hundred people. I think about where I live. I have five nations right around me. And then also as we send our very own to the nations of the world. And so at the end of this I'm going to challenge. Actually I'm going to challenge all of us with three specific challenges to make disciples. So ready your heart. Pray as we go through the Great Commission. Like I said, our Lord, I believe has divided this text into three reasons why we should make the great commission our marching orders. Number one because he and he alone is the sovereign one who has all authority over all the nations and secondly because he commands us to make disciples of all the nations and lastly he promises to be with us all the time. This is incredible so the first reason we should make the great commission our marching orders, it's because Jesus has all authority. Do you believe that? All authority. I ask you that because we must believe this if we are going to fulfill the Great Commission. Look at verses 16 through 18. The 11 disciples went to Galilee, the mountain, to which Jesus had directed them, and when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Now the first thing we must understand is that Jesus has given us the Great Commission as well. I have heard people make the argument that the Great Commission is only for the eleven. Remember Judas is no more, they're going to replace him shortly. And yes the Great Commission has been and is directed only to the eleven here as they are the original disciples who followed Jesus and many of the original disciples and apostles who will fulfill the office, write scripture, plant the first churches, which is why Paul said in Ephesians 220 that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. So absolutely this commission was given to them first, but it didn't stop with them. The church has been doing this for the last two thousand years. that's why Jesus said in the last verse that He would be with us until the end of the age. That means the church age. Which means He's attended the church to fulfill the Great Commission until the day He comes back. So yes, it is for us. It's not just the eleven who we see here must have heard from the women if you the mountain to which Jesus had directed them to receive this great commission. Now, we don't know what mountainous was, but then I thought to myself, it's fitting to me that it would be on a mountain where Jesus gives in the marching orders for the church because the 10 commandments, the old covenant was given to Moses on the mountain, but the new covenant, and Jesus Christ is now superseded the old covenant is now the Messiah's who's on the mountain giving the marching orders to the church to preach the gospel and make disciples of all nations and not just Israel anymore with a few in-gathering of Gentiles. Like it was in the Old Testament. Do you remember that it was Galilee of the Gentiles that Jesus was sent to? That's why this is fitting to begin the Great Commission. mission. It's our risen Christ. He's going to save up people from every tribe, tongue, nation, language. This has always been the plan of God. Always. It's why he said to Abraham that he would bless all the families of the earth, not just Israel that comes from Genesis 12. So it's not a coincidence to me that Matthew was writing primarily to the Jews. Jesus' his ministry was first to the Jews, but then he finishes his gospel with the great commission to make disciples everywhere of all the nations. It could be translated as Gentiles. We're going to talk more about that later. And why? Why should we do that? Brothers and sisters, because the risen Christ should be worshiped by everyone, just like he was worshiped by the disciples. Look at verse 17, when they saw him, they worshiped him, just like the women worshiped him and took hold of his feet. Now again, don't just blow by this. This is a massive statement to make about the response of people to Jesus Christ. They worshiped him, worshiped him, and he accepted their worship, just like he accepted the worship of the women. Brothers and sisters, there are so many false teachers out there who say Jesus is not God. And that Thomas, if you remember what he said after seeing the risen Christ, he was just making an emotional statement when he saw the resurrected Christ. My Lord and my God, that was not a claim of belief. That was not a doctrinal statement that Thomas was making. It was just emotional. And yet I thought to myself, well, Jesus accepted it. Jesus didn't correct him, nor did he correct the women or the disciples, because the reality is he is God. In the flesh, just like the Old Testament said the Messiah would be, Isaiah seven, Emmanuel, God with us, Isaiah nine, he shall be called mighty God. Psalm 110, the Lord said to my Lord, the entire New Testament teaches this truth, brothers and sisters. Somebody said it wasn't the council of Nicaea who came up with the deity of Christ centuries later.

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