Matthew 28:18-20 gives us our marching orders from our resurrected King—the Christ Himself. This is the Great Commission.
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
In a military town, we understand a commission. We have commissioned officers in our church. Their authority comes directly from the one who commissioned them—the President of the United States. Likewise, our authority comes from Christ. Look at v. 18, where Jesus says, “All authority has been given to me.” Christ is Over All. He is the resurrected King—the Father has given Him all authority. In English, it looks like the emphasis in this commission is on the word “Go.” But the Greek does not support that. In the Greek, the emphasis is on “make disciples.” That is what is imperative. In the NASB and LSB Bibles, a footnote after the word “Go” gives an alternative translation of “Having gone.”
According to King Jesus, we must make disciples from all nations (ethnicities). We, His servants and followers, are commanded by Him to “make disciples.” We are not commanded to fix the world or save the planet. We are commanded to “make disciples.” Making disciples starts with evangelism. “Having gone to __________________” You pick a location for the blank line, now “make disciples.” Having gone could be understood as: As you are doing life with others, help unbelievers become believers. Two weeks ago, our entire Sunday morning sermon was focused on evangelism. We taught 1) start with God, 2) move to sin and judgment, 3) tell them the good news (the gospel), and 4) share man’s responsibility to believe. We stressed all of this is the Spirit’s work. We know disciple-making is ultimately the work of the Holy Spirit, yet we are commanded to “make disciples.”
We disciple unbelievers by building relationships with them, focused on God’s Word. We pray the Lord will open their eyes, we pray that God will give this unbeliever a desire to know more. We ask if we can study the Bible together. Can I show you what the Bible says about salvation? This is not a momentary engagement. This is a relationship. We care. We desire that this unbeliever trusts Christ to save them from their sins. We desire that they submit to Christ’s authority in their lives as their King and Lord. This is a disciple-making relationship because our prayer, our hope, our objective, and our end state is that this unbeliever becomes a disciple of Christ. When he or she believes the gospel, we are not done. This new convert needs to continue to be discipled. And we are not going anywhere. We are doing life with them.
They need to follow the Lord’s example in believer’s baptism and be taught to obey all that Christ has commanded us to be, think, do, and proclaim. This is discipleship. It is the second part of making disciples. We have moved from engaging them with the truth of the Word of God to equipping them to be a follower of Christ. Look back up at the last sentence of the Great Commission. Look at the incredible promise. Having given us our mission, Jesus, Himself, promises He will be with us. We are not alone. We are not trying to save the world alone. He, our Lord and our Savior, is with us through His Spirit dwelling in us. Who are you trying to disciple with the Word of God?
