So, these closing words of Matthew's gospel are often called the Great Commission, and it is
! The Great Commission is to go and make disciples of all nations.
!
This Great Commission is preceded, and it's based on, it rests on a great claim made by
the Lord Jesus in verse 18, where Jesus says to the disciples, all authority in heaven and
on earth has been given to me.
That is the great claim that Jesus makes, and that's what we're going to look at for a few
minutes this evening.
I want to begin with just a couple of observations, and the first is that today, as we meet here
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, more than ever before, there are groups of Christ followers
all across the globe in more nations, tribes, languages, people groups than ever before.
Just from my own experience, I've been privileged to experience a small part of that huge diversity.
I remember attending four-hour-long services in Nigeria, which featured a lot of dancing, or meeting a saffron-robed leader of Christ devotees in North India,
or taking part in prayer meetings where people prayed in Dari, Farsi, Sarani, as well as in English.
And I've got friends who have translated the language of a remote tribe in Papua New Guinea.
Another friend who's translated it into the language of a Himalayan nomadic tribe.
And in both these people groups, there are churches today.
I've also had the privilege of worshiping in multi-ethnic churches in the Gulf, and also services conducted in Nepali, Urdu, Hindi, Ladakh, Gaelic, Hungarian, Tamil, Malayalam,
and a number of other languages, too.
And of course, worshiping in many congregations in the Free Church of Scotland as well.
But all of these are centered on the same Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's just a tiny fraction of what's going on in the world today.
And that's amazing when you think of that it all began with a few very ordinary, uneducated folk in Galilee,
in a backwater at the edge of the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago.
But the second observation is that there are still huge areas of the world.
Peoples, languages, ethnic groups that are hardly reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
There are still over 1,400 languages that have no part of the Bible translated.
Closer to home, there are villages, towns, parts of cities with very little in the way of access to the gospel
and widespread ignorance of the Bible's message.
And that's true of this city, too.
There are also people groups within our own nation with few or no believers among them.
And of course, every new generation needs to be evangelized, needs to be taught the gospel.
So there is still much work to be done.
So as we think of the Great Commission in Matthew 28, 18 to 20, perhaps the key word in that is the word all,
which appears four times in these few verses.
This is my own translation, which is slightly clunky, but it brings out the fact that this word all is there four times.
So the key word is all.
There's all authority, all nations, all Jesus' commands, and all the time.
But this evening, our time is short, so I just want to focus really on the first of those, all authority.
And this is the great claim that Jesus makes on which the Great Commission rests.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus Christ.
He's claiming universal kingship.
If you read any of the gospels, you'll soon realize that a phrase that Jesus used a lot was the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven.
And the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, has drawn near with the coming of Jesus.
And here, at the end of Matthew, very clearly, Jesus is identifying himself as that king.
He is the king.
He is making that claim of himself.
And he's saying that it's been given to him, given to him by God the Father.
But that raises at least three questions for us.
And I want to look at those.
First of all, the question is, why should we believe him?
Second, when was this authority given to Jesus?
And third, what kind of king is Jesus?
First of all, then, why should we believe him?
You might read or hear this claim.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
And you might think, hang on a minute.
How can this man, this first century Jewish peasant from near the margins of the Roman Empire,
who was also crucified in utter humiliation,
how can he claim to be the king of the whole world?
How can he claim to be the lord of the entire universe?
Why should his disciples believe him?
And why should we today believe him?
Why should we believe this claim?
Well, just to give a bit of context,
the Jewish scriptures, what we call the Old Testament,
prophesied a Messiah figure,
one who would come and reign with justice and righteousness.
And he would be the king of the Israelites,
but also his kingship, his authority would extend over all nations.
And here's just a sample of, there's more than this,
but this is just a sample of some of the passages in the Old Testament.
So first of all, Genesis 49, 10,
that the scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
until he to whom it belongs shall come,
and the obedience of the nations shall be his.
Or Psalm 72,
which is, I suppose, like a prayer about the king
in the line of David and Solomon,
may he rule from sea to sea,
and from the river to the ends of the earth.
May all kings bow down to him,
and all nations serve him.
But there's one passage in particular
that Jesus is riffing off in this Great Commission,
and that is Daniel chapter 7.
And in that chapter, Daniel has this vision,
the prophet Daniel has a vision of
four ferocious beasts
that represent four kings and four empires.
And then Daniel sees heaven and the throne of God,
and God in this vision is given the title
the Ancient of Days.
And Daniel writes
that in the visions of the night,
this is Daniel 7, 13, and 14,
and you can listen to the resemblances
with the Great Commission,
these words from Matthew 28.
Daniel writes,
in the visions of the night,
I saw one like a son of man
coming with the clouds of heaven.
He came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
He was given authority,
honor, and kingship.
All peoples, nations, and languages
will serve him.
His authority is an everlasting authority.
That will not pass away.
And his kingdom will never be destroyed.
So not for the first time,
Jesus identifies himself
with this exalted figure
in Daniel's vision.
This one like a son of man.
And you maybe heard some of the echoes
of this passage in Jesus' words.
All authority given to him.
All nations serving him.
And all of the time.
That it would be an everlasting kingship.
So Jesus is claiming that he is this king.
He is this Messiah.
He is this son of man.
Now this meeting in Galilee
at which Jesus says this
takes place days,
or at the most weeks,
after Jesus was brutally crucified
by the Roman Empire,
having been mocked and ridiculed
for his claim to be a king.
And yet here he was,
that same Jesus,
who had been crucified,
now standing before them alive.
The tomb where his corpse
had been laid is empty.
Because Jesus has been raised
from the dead
by the power of God.
And that resurrection vindicates Jesus
and all the claims that he made.
We know about vindication,
cases of vindication.
For example,
in recent history,
there was the post office scandal
where many postmasters
were falsely accused
of fiddling the books.
And some of them were put in jail.
And then it was discovered
and came to light
that it was a computer system fault.
And those postmasters
have been vindicated.
Their innocence has been declared
and they have been vindicated
of all the wrong
that they were accused of.
will magnify that
by an infinite amount
and you'll see
what the resurrection
does for Jesus.
The human verdict on Jesus
was that he was a fake king,
that he was an imposter,
deserving only of rejection
and torture and death.
But God has utterly turned
that verdict on its head.
This rising from the dead
is the most spectacular
and stunning vindication
of Jesus
and of all that he claimed to be,
all that he claimed for himself,
including that he is the Messiah,
that he is the Son of Man,
that he is the King.
And this resurrection of Jesus
is something that these disciples
witness with their own eyes
on this occasion.
They are there,
they see him before them.
And on a number of other occasions,
they saw him alive
after his suffering,
after his crucifixion.
And it was something
that they gave witness to
in their preaching
and then later in their writing,
what we have in the New Testament.
Their message was that
we have seen the Lord
risen from the dead.
And many of those disciples
paid for that claim
with their lives.
And so that is why
we can believe
Jesus' claim,
because he was vindicated
through resurrection.
Second question is,
when was this authority
given to him?
Jesus is a divine person.
We see that in verse 19,
where Jesus commissions his disciples
to baptize the nations
in or into the name
of the Father
and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.
Now, you see there,
you'll notice that
there's only one name,
the name of God.
In the Old Testament,
it's the name Yahweh,
the Lord.
And yet there are three
who share that name.
It's the name of the Father
and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.
And of course,
the Son is Jesus Christ.
He is the Son.
So he shares in the divine name,
in the divine identity.
He is himself God.
And as God,
in one sense,
he has always ruled.
There's no,
in one sense,
he was never given authority
because he's always had authority
as God,
God the Son.
The one with the divine name,
the divine identity.
But in Jesus Christ,
God came to this world
in human form,
in human flesh.
And so it's now
as the one who is
both fully God
and fully human
that he has been given authority.
He is now the,
both fully God
and fully human.
He is the mediator
between God
and human beings
who has completed
his mission
through his death
and resurrection.
And as the one
who has completed
that mission
as the mediator,
as the,
as the savior,
as the,
as the man Jesus,
he has been given
all authority
in heaven
and on earth.
The third question is,
what kind
of king
is he?
Maybe the idea
of someone claiming
to be king
over all the nations
of the world
makes you an easy.
It might sound
to you
imperialistic
and throughout history
and today,
empire
is,
well,
to say the least,
it can be problematic.
But this king
is radically different
from all the other kings
and emperors
and rulers
that world history
has thrown up.
We see that
in words earlier on
in Matthew's gospel
in Matthew 20
verses 25 to 28
where we read
that Jesus called
the disciples to him
and said,
you know that the rulers
of the nations
lord it over them
and their great ones
exercise authority
over them.
That's,
of course,
all too familiar.
It's the world
that we know.
Then he says,
it shall not be so
among you.
But whoever would be
great among you
must be your servant
and whoever would be
first among you
must be your slave
even as the son of man
came not to be served
but to serve
and to give his life
as a ransom
for many.
Now when Jesus said
these last words
about giving his life
as a ransom for many,
that was still in the future
when he said these words
in Matthew 20.
It was still a prediction
but now it has happened.
Jesus has given
this ultimate service,
this ultimate act
for the benefit,
for the good
of others.
He has given his life
as a ransom
for many.
Jesus is the king
whose policy,
whose way of ruling
is service
and self-giving love,
of self-sacrificing love,
love that is,
that seeks the good
of the other
above his own good,
his own interest.
That's the kind of king
that Jesus is.
He is the king of love.
And so,
Jesus has all authority
in heaven
and on earth.
His reign is
universal.
He is the world's
true king
and lord
and rightful lord.
And the call of the
gospel today
to you
is
to turn to him
and to receive him
as your king,
to recognize
and acknowledge him
as the true king
and lord of all
and to give him
your allegiance
and your trust
and your love,
your devotion.
And,
if you have done that,
then,
your task
is the great commission
to go and make
disciples of all nations,
baptizing them
in the name of the Father
and of the Son
and the Holy Spirit
and teaching them
to obey
everything that Jesus
commands.
And his promise
to you is that
he will be with you always
to the very end
of the age
until that time
when the earth
is filled
with the knowledge
of the glory
of the Lord Jesus
as the waters
cover the sea.
Amen.
May God bless
his word
to us.
Amen.