"Therefore, go and make disciples..." Matthew 28:18-20 (NLT)

Jesus is the first to establish His supremacy over all things in heaven and on the earth.  When He speaks of authority Jesus is speaking of “the Liberty to do as He pleases”, or better said “the power of authority (influence) and of right (privilege) over all created things.”  Jesus doesn’t mince words here, He not only declares that He has the power over the natural world but also has the power over everything in the spiritual realm too.  Jesus has the ultimate authority over all things in this universe.

Jesus had this power before He was born to Mary & Joseph, when He lived in the spiritual realm with His Father from eternity past.  He came to the earth and emptied Himself of His Divine powers to demonstrate to us first-hand what the love of the Father was like.  

Jesus is the truest representation of the Father that has ever been, the old testament prophets only caught slight glimpses of the Father’s glory, but utilized their knowledge or their personal experience to fill in the rest of the story to paint a picture of God which was sometimes incomplete or in error. Even though they were prophets, they missed telling the true story about God’s love affair with His created Humanity by misrepresenting His character, which is why Jesus had to come to show us what the Heavenly Father is actually like.

Jesus is telling His disciples to go and make other disciples from the surrounding nation states.  Show them who I am, and demonstrate to them the love of the Father so there will be no doubt that they know that the Father loves them with an unending love.

He also tells His disciples to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  What Jesus is saying is to immerse these new disciples in water so that they know what it means to be dead (buried) to the old way of life and be made alive to this new life in Jesus.  This was the Great Commission after Jesus was raised from the dead, and before Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

“Teach these new disciples everything I have commanded you”, the word “command” here is a verb not a noun, which indicates actively commanding, “to order, command, or to enjoin, to give charge, to fulfil” all of the purposes of Christ and the reason for His coming.  Jesus isn’t speaking in the past tense here, He is speaking in the present progressive tense which indicates that as Christ inhabits these new believers, He will command them also.

This commission gives us a glimpse into the impartation of Christ into new believers, as Jesus takes these new believers into new life and relationship with Him, He reveals what life in the spirit is like.  This Great Commission is one of the most important of the commands of Jesus to spread His Church out in the world. 

I remember being intimidated as a young boy by hearing the preaching of visiting evangelists at my Church and them heaping up tons of guilt upon us by telling us that we have to accomplish the Great Commission by any means possible.  

The reality is that we can’t accomplish this task unless Jesus resides in us and is living His new through us to accomplish this work through us.  No matter what level of human effort we apply to the Great Commission we will never accomplish what only Jesus could do through us by building His Church.  Jesus must be the builder of the Church, not us.

Jesus makes this final point that He “is with us always”, this word always is the Greek word “pas” which means “all things”, Jesus is with us in “all things” that we encounter during our lifetime.  Jesus is revealing His omnipresence in a unique way to show us that He not only has “all things” under His control but that he is God Himself. 

There is a lot revealed in this Great Commission other than just proselytizing people for Jesus, what is revealed is 

• Jesus is doing the work through us to build His Church, not because of us but through us.  
• There is death to the self by water baptism which symbolizes being raised to new life.
• There is teaching new disciples what it means to live in this new life in Christ by hearing Him and listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit as He speaks about this new role in this new Kingdom experience.  
• And that Jesus is our God in the flesh.

Jesus ends this passage by telling us that He is with us for eternity.  It turns out that the Great Commission is all about Jesus and the Joy He places in our lives from knowing Him, how could we not share His indescribable joy with others?

Be Blessed;

Stephen Barnett