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Therefore, Go and Make Disciples
Therefore, Go and Make Disciples Matthew 28:1-20 Key Verse: 28:19, 20 “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, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” These days Easter seems to be all about Easter eggs, Easter bunnies and time spent with family. However, Easter is far more than this. It is the day on which Christians should remember Jesus’ victory over the devil and the power that the devil holds over us. For a Christian, this should be the greatest and most important day of the year, yet it has devolved into an Easter egg hunt for the children and a time for the adults to spend time with their families. Today. Let’s think about the true meaning of Easter by looking at Matthews account of the first Easter Sunday and the following few weeks that occurred some 2000 years ago. Matthew’s account is rather simple. He only records three major events associated with that time, yet these three events tell us some things that we really need to know as Christians. The first event involves two women who went to the tomb where Jesus was buried. When they got there, they discovered that Jesus was no longer in the tomb and they were told by an angel that he had risen from the dead. They were given a mission to go and tell Jesus disciples this good news. When they accepted the mission and immediately began to carry it out, they received a great reward. Next, Matthew tells us about the Roman guards who were assigned to keep watch over Jesus’ tomb to make sure his disciples didn’t come and do something to the body. This part seems a little out of place in an Easter narrative, but it is included so that we can be assured of one thing – the tomb that Jesus was in was empty on the morning of Easter Sunday. Finally, Matthew recounts Jesus’ disciples see Jesus in the person on a mountain in Galilee. It was at this place that Jesus gave his disciples and us His greatest promise and His greatest command. May God bless our study of this passage and help us to remember the true meaning of this holiday that we call Easter. First, the women who went to look at Jesus’ tomb (1-10). Matthew records that two women went to the Jesus tomb on Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. The other Mary was most likely not Jesus’ mother, one because a Gospel writer would never refer to the mother of Jesus as the “other Mary”, and, two because in Mark’s gospel she is referred to as Mary the mother of James. But I think the interesting on to look at here is Mary Magdalene. We must remember who this woman was. She was not a good woman when Jesus first met her. In fact, Jesus had to cast seven demons out of her and she was very likely living as a prostitute. Yet when she met Jesus, Jesus had compassion on her. He cast out her demons and He loved her unconditionally. She accepted Jesus love and loved Him in return. In fact, she never left Him after she met Him. She dedicated her life to following Him. Why? Because He had saved her; He had cast out her demons and given her a completely new life. More than that, Jesus had loved her unconditionally in spite of herself. She was a woman that no man could truly love – men used her all the time for their own pleasure, but they didn’t love her. She found true love in Jesus and she returned that love. She gave her life to Jesus. She may have been the woman in Luke chapter seven who wept over Jesus feet and anointed them with them with oil. Jesus said of her that her great love was a result of her having been forgiven many sins (Luke 7:47). Even now, when He was dead and all seemed to be lost she wanted to see Jesus just one more time and do something for Him (Mark’s and Luke’s gospel tells us that these women had brought spices to perfume Jesus body). Mary’s life shows us how we should respond to Jesus as Christians. Loving Jesus and accepting Him as our Lord, means that we completely dedicate our lives to Him. We must give up our old life and completely commit our lives to following Him, learning from Him and serving Him and others just as He did. Like Mary, we must love Jesus with our whole heart, because He has forgiven all our many sins. He gave His life for us, so we must give our life for Him. What happened when the women got to the tomb? Look at verse 2. “There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.” This angel did not look like an ordinary man. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind there that he was not of this world. Verse 3 tells us that his appearance was like lighting and his clothes were as white as snow. The Roman guards knew that this was no ordinary man and they were so terrified that “shook and became like dead men.” Perhaps they fainted, we don’t really know, but what we do know is that they were paralyzed with fear. Why were they so afraid? They saw a visitor from Heaven. They knew that they were great sinners, and they feared that their sins were going to be exposed by this angel. This is the fear that is placed in the hearts of every sinner. Everyone living in sin is terrified that their win is going to be exposed. What they don’t want to accept, is that it is already exposed before God. One day, when they stand before the judgement seat of Jesus, their worst fear will be realized. However, this is not true for Christians. Because of their relationship with Jesus, they don’t have to live in fear of God’s judgement. Jesus has already forgiven them and their sins have been wiped clean. This can be seen here in the two women. The Roman soldiers were consumed by fear to the point that they were like dead men, but apparently the two women were standing there waiting to hear what this angel had to say. So the angel gave them his message. “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” It is remarkable that the angel knew that they were looking for Jesus. I think he knew this because they could stand there before him, while the soldiers could not. The soldiers, weren’t looking for Jesus – they were guarding Jesus body, but they certainly weren’t looking for Him. Therefore, when Jesus servant showed up, they were terrified. Yet the two women were looking for Jesus, so when Jesus servant showed up they could stand there and listen to what he had to say. The same is true for us today. If we look for God, the Bible promises us that we will find Him if we look for him with all our heart and soul (Deuteronomy 4:29). However, if we don’t look for God and we just go about our lives as if He doesn’t exist, we can expect to end up like dead men and women when He or one of His servants shows up to call us to account. The two women heard the angels message and they immediately began to carry it out. Look at verse 8. “So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.” They were afraid, yet they were filled with joy. The fear might be because they weren’t entirely sure what was going on. The angel said that Jesus had risen, but could this really be true? This doubt cause them some fear, but the important thing to see here is that this fear or doubt did not keep them from carrying out their mission. In spite of the fear, they hurried away to go and tell the disciples as they were instructed. As we will see later, we must not let fear or doubt keep us from obeying the great commission of God. It is interesting to note what happened when these women overcame their fear and began to carry out the mission that was given to them. Look at verse 9. “Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.” When they obeyed in spite of their fear, they were rewarded with a personal visit from the Risen Jesus. Like these two women, we can expect to meet Jesus when we obey and live our lives the way He commands us. This is not easy and it often involves overcoming our own personal fear and doubt, but committed obedience is the way to grow closer to Jesus. When they fell at Jesus feet in genuine worship, Jesus calmed their fears and reaffirmed their mission. Going to tell the disciples doesn’t seem like a great mission, but it was the most important thing that had to be done at that moment. This really is the beginning of the Christian church and it was these to women’s job to see that it got started. They had no way of knowing this. They could have refused and just stayed there with Jesus, but then what would have become of the church. The point here is that not every mission might seem grand or life changing, but if it is a mission coming from God, it is absolutely necessary. It requires obedience to carry it out. We must know that whatever we are doing we are doing it for God, and therefore it is necessary. I want to look at one final thing in verse ten. Jesus doesn’t say to the women, go and tell my disciples, or even, go and tell my friends to go to Galilee. Jesus says, “Go and tell my brothers…” The disciples and these women were no longer disciples of Jesus, they were now His brothers and sisters. They were members of His family with all the rights of sons and daughters. The same is true for us today. The Bible says, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” Everyone can be a child of God, all they have to do is accept Jesus as their Lord and savior – this is the good news of the gospel and it is what we should remember today. Second, the false testimony of the guards (11-15). Verses 11 through 15 might seem somewhat unnecessary, but they go a long way to prove one important fact – on the first Easter Morning the tomb that Jesus was in fact empty. Roman guards had been place around the tomb to ensure that Jesus disciples would come to steal the body and simply claim that he had risen from the dead. This would have been terrible for the Jewish leaders, because then the legend of Jesus would grow and they would lose a lot of their power among the people. The Guards were there to prevent this, however, now there was a big problem. The disciples hadn’t come and stolen the body, but the stone had been rolled away and the tomb was empty. The Roman guards had to do something, but they couldn’t go to their superiors because if they did they would most likely have lost their lives for being unable to guard a dead man. So, they went to the chief priest and Jewish elders instead. These men didn’t want the people think that Jesus had risen from the dead so they paid the guards a large amount of money and told them to say that they had simply fallen asleep and Jesus disciples had come and stolen the body. They also promised to protect the soldiers if Pilot heard of their dereliction of duty, for which they probably would have been killed. Any way you look at this story, it doesn’t make any sense. First of all, the Roman soldiers guarding the tomb almost certainly all fallen asleep at the same time, because they knew that this would likely lead to their death if it was discovered. However, even if they did, wouldn’t one of them woken up when they heard the disciples rolling away that stone. If none of them had woken up, then how could they possibly know who had taken the body and if they had woken up and seen them, why wouldn’t they go after them and catch them. From the disciples point of view, what would they have to gain from undertaking this adventure. They would be risking their lives just steal a dead body. Jesus hadn’t risen, so he was just another dead man. If he wasn’t alive, he wasn’t God so why risk everything just to try and start a fake religion that was destined to bring nothing but persecution and death for the next 100 years or so. Besides the disciples were all in hiding because they were fearful for their own death for being associated with Jesus. None of this story makes any sense, but because credible people – the Roman soldiers – spread the story some people believed it. The Jewish people who had a long history and firm traditions were especially likely to believe this story, because they didn’t want their way of life interrupted. And so the story spread, but the gospel spread as well. Third, go and make disciples of all nations (16-20). Our final section is only four verses long, but they are perhaps four of the most important verses in the entire Bible. The eleven disciples did as Jesus told them to do and went to Galilee, to the exact mountain that Jesus had told them to go to. When I read this, I thought of Moses when God called him to go and bring His people out of bondage in Egypt. When God called Moses, He said that He would give Moses a sign that His work had been completed. God told Moses that he would bring the Israelites back to that very mountain to worship God there. Just as God had done with Moses when He completed that work of freeing His people, so Jesus did with His disciples when He had completed His work. However, let’s take a careful look at verse 17. “When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.” His eleven disciples, who had been with Him day after day for the previous three years or so, saw Him standing there before them alive and they worshiped Him. Cleary, they worshiped Him as God! Who else could He be? However, right after Matthew says they worshiped Him, he tells us that some of them doubted. What exactly were they doubting? I have no idea, but if I think back to the story of Moses and the people of Israel worshiping God at Mt. Sinai, I see the exact same thing happening. Those people all saw that great signs and wonders that God had done through Moses, yet when they got to Mt. Sinai, doubt immediately came into the camp and they fell into grave sins. Human beings hadn’t changed in 2000 years and we still haven’t changed until today. We are still full of doubt. It is amazing, but true. The beautiful part is that this doesn’t stop God. Look at the first part of verse 18. “Then Jesus came to them and said…” Jesus knew that some of them were doubting, but he didn’t cast them off to the side and speak only with those who were 100% sure of who He was. No. He spoke them all – to those who had doubts and to those who did not. Jesus knows us. He knows all of our doubts and fears, but He still calls us and wants to use. In fact, in spite of ourselves He can and will use us to complete His world salvation work. Let’s look at the rest of verse 18. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Not some authority, but all authority. This means that no one and nothing can resist Him or overcome Him. Jesus is supreme. There simply is nothing greater than Jesus. Not even death can keeps its grip on Jesus – Jesus has absolute authority even over death. This in itself is amazing, but if you combine this with verse 20b you have something truly great. “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” This is something that every Christian must take time to consider. It should make us absolutely fearless in this world. Jesus who has all authority and who never lies, promises that he will be with us always. If Jesus is for us, who can be against us? Now we must think about what Jesus commands us to do. He has been given all authority and He has promised to be with us so He gives us a command that is humanly impossible to carry out. “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, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” We simply can’t do this on our own, but Jesus can. I want to point out one final thing before we finish here. Jesus didn’t simply say, go and preach the good news to all nations. He said, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Jesus didn’t just teach His disciples He made them great men. He trained them. Discipleship is not easy. It is not just sitting down and listing to lectures. It is active and it is training in how to live a life as Jesus servant. Today we thought about the true meaning of Easter – Jesus rose from the dead. By doing so He frees us from the guilt of our sins, from our fear and doubt and He gives us a great mission to do for Him. Humanly it is impossible, but Jesus has all authority and He has promised to be with us forever. In Jesus, we can do everything. Happy Easter. |
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