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Jesus leaves his disciples with the great commission to make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded them.
Dan: (00:00)
Hi, everyone. And welcome to training for life redeemed. Today, we are going to be finishing off the book of Matthew. So I am here with my father, David Jackson. We’re going to talk to you about the great commission. So this is the last couple of verses down of four verses, Matthew Jesus going to meet his disciples in Galilee, all 11 of them. probably more are going to be there eventually, but it says 11 at this point. Yep. And then when he shows up, they’re going to worship him. He’s going to talk to them about how he’s been given all authority in heaven and on earth, and then he’s going to commission them and say, go and make disciples. Yep. And that he’s going to be with them throughout all ages. Yep. Now
David: (00:47)
Familiar words.
Dan: (00:47)
Yeah. That’s right. Yeah. So let’s just go back to, they’ve gone to Galilee. Why didn’t he meet him in Judea like they were all down there in Judea and he is like, go to Galilee. I meet you there. Yeah. Meet him on a mountain. I mean, yeah. You take your pick of whatever mountain you want there. Hermon’s nice and big and taller. It’s where the transfiguration probably happens on the top of mountain. Hermon. Yeah. whether or not he meets them at the top, you know, he may not have gone. It’s
David: (01:13)
Quite a Hike
Dan: (01:13)
It’s a long hike.
David: (01:14)
yeah,
Dan: (01:15)
But still, so they’re walking back up, meeting him on a mountain. Why there,
David: (01:20)
Why there, because he’s not just going to meet him one day there…, Galilee was the way you retreat away from the police in Judea. So it’s the Judean authorities that are persecuting. Galilee is home base. Most of the disciples were born and raised in Galilee. Their families are there. Jesus’ family is there. Jesus has hundreds of disciples in Galilee. they came to Jerusalem only for the feasts. and then they had to hide. So to be in Galilee, there’s some freedom going on. Paul tells us later on that over 500 people were with him, and saw the risen Jesus and heard him speak what’s going to happen is that it’s about a three day hike to get back up to Galilee when they get up to Galilee and Jesus has gone ahead of them. I will meet you there, pack your bags, get yourselves all back home.
David: (02:22)
And he meets them on a hill, wherever it is, they’re there for six weeks. So he is going to be spending. Luke tells us, he spends the next six weeks working through the whole Old Testament, explaining to them how the whole thing’s all about him. Now that he’s risen from the dead. They get it. Mm that’s. That, you know, he spent three years teaching them this stuff and they didn’t get it. , you know, they weren’t expecting it. It wasn’t, there’s, there’s a reality Now that’s dawned and suddenly the framework is in place and we can make sense of this. The light has gone on. So we’re going to go back and we’re going to read Genesis to Malachi, and we’re going to do it in terms of, this is how all of that fits into the plan that you just saw fulfilled. And for them, that is going to be the biggest wow moment, since they first met him.
David: (03:20)
Mm. you know that moment when you open the Old Testament and it, and you look at it and you say that’s about Jesus and all of a sudden, the text makes sense. you know, I remember the moment when that light bulb went on. It’s, it’s so exciting, but here we are. it’s interesting tha they prostrate themselves as soon as they see him, because that’s how you greet a king. this isn’t about, you know, we, we started singing songs and waving our hands in the air worshipping , you know, this is here is and Psalm two says, kiss the king. So they’re on their face,the ground, doing what you do when you bow before a king. some of them are hesitant. It doesn’t say they doubted the last time we had that word, that Greek word was when Peter was walking on water and, he hesitated and started sinking. he was distracted. He was confused. And I, I mean, let’s be fair. Jesus has risen from the dead and there he is in front of you.
Dan: (04:32)
You’re allowed to hesitate a little bit.
David: (04:33)
You’re allowed to be the rabbit in the headlights. What,
Dan: (04:36)
What, oh yeah. Okay.
David: (04:39)
Am I really seeing, is that really you and you think of all, all the occurrences when they saw Jesus and didn’t recognize him after he rose so that the, you know, the Emaus walk , you have a dinner with him and you don’t realize it’s him. we see what we expect to see. so this is a, this is one of those reality moments where your whole worldview has to just start again, very uncomfortable thing to do, but very exciting.
Dan: (05:12)
All right. Let me have Jesus declaring his all authority being given to him on heaven on earth. So basically, declaring himself to be the Supreme ruler of everything. And then he gives an order. Yeah. That’s kinda like I have all this authority. Now you do what you’re told. Yeah.
David: (05:33)
and that authority question’s beautiful. you’ve gotta go back. Genesis. God creates Adam and Eve and he gives them authority. you are to exercise dominion over the birds of the air, the boost of the field, the fish of the sea. You rule God’s property in God’s name, in God’s presence. And Satan took that away. When they got, when they frustrated themselves to the devil, the devil becomes the usurper king. And that usurper king said to Jesus, all the kingdoms of the earth, I will give you if you prostrate yourself to me, we missed this line, but Jesus doesn’t just have all authority on earth.
Dan: (06:19)
Yeah.
David: (06:20)
All authority in heaven and earth is his that’s something Satan couldn’t offer mm-hmm and it lines up with the Lord’s prayer. your, you all will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That only happens when Jesus is king. So he’s now got that authority, mind you in six weeks, he’s going to ascend and actually be formally enthroned, but he’s the king. Mm. So now we get the command and yeah. One command.
Dan: (06:55)
Yeah. When multiple parts well, so go and make disciples, which is baptizing them and teaching them to obey basically. Yeah. Right? So
David: (07:05)
All the things that Christians forget, I have to say it, doesn’t say the command isn’t go and make disciples. The command is when you have gone, cause you are going to do, as you’re told mm-hmm, make disciples translate, go and apprentice people to Jesus sign ’em up, get ’em into the training program, training for life redeemed, go sign these people up. make disciples, make trainees out of the, these people. His commission is to all the world. How do you make a disciple in our, I dunno, in our culture, in our way of doing things, we’ve done it backwards. We, we teach people perhaps, we might enroll them, but the teaching ministry of the church, I guess we’ve focused a bit, a little bit on doctrine. We’ve told Bible stories. But if you look at what Jesus is telling us, go and teach them to obey me.
David: (08:19)
We are so afraid of salvation by works, that we forgot, we’re supposed to train people to live a different lifestyle. Obedience. You can’t say I’m a believer in Jesus and disobey him. If you have any doubt about my statement there, go read one, John three. Yeah. You know, you can’t do this. If he is Lord, you do As you’re told and you, but that takes practice. How do you start to obey Jesus? Well, let me put you through an embarrassing little ritual. Come on down to the water. I’m going to dunk you mm. Into the name of the father, son, holy spirit. This is commitment. So you are going to take the name of the father, son and holy spirit. That’s going to be your new identity. You are his forever family member, his child. You take that name when you commit to him and you commit to him by obeying the command to get dumped.
David: (09:25)
And we regularly look at that and say, that’s not a central gospel issue. It’s a ritual. We don’t, you know, it’s a secondary thing. It’s about faith. Well, what nonsense? We like the Pharisees. You know, if I can divide it up and get rid of the bit, I don’t like, yeah, I’ll I’ll cherry pick it. You can’t say I trust him. He’s Lord. I’m committed to him. If you’re not going to jump in the water. Yeah. And I, I I’ve said to a few people, you know, if, if you say you’re a believer in Christ and you have not been baptized, it’s like shacking up with Jesus. Instead of marrying him, it’s a relationship without a commitment and the commitment. This is a commitment that says, this is my first act of obedience, where I acknowledge you as Lord. And from now on I’m your student.
David: (10:19)
And I’ll do, as I’m told, I’m here to be trained, to change my thinking, my attitude and my lifestyle so that I will bring to bear in a godless destructive world, the peace and the love and the grace that has been poured out on me in Jesus Christ. So we are, we are really looking at, something much more substantial than, you know, a, a verbal profession of faith. we are looking at something that’s, you know, got some meat on it. and so I think I speak bluntly, baptism. We’ve neglected enormously. I can remember in some Baptist churches where you did all the teaching and you graduated, when you got baptized, you know, I’ve done it, I’m finished. I’m a Christian. Now I can walk away. That should be the other way around the other way around, you know? so this baptism is the point where I commit, I I’ll go on record and say, if you haven’t been baptized, you are on the profession of your faith somewhere.
David: (11:31)
There you are not a Christian because to bear the name, Christian, you have to be baptized into the name. You may be a believer. You may be saved, but you have not taken the name. You haven’t committed to the covenant. And that that’s an important step. and we should be encouraging people, obeying the command, go into the world, make disciples, and you do that by dunking them and teaching them, dunking them into the name. So let me encourage you. If you haven’t been baptized, let’s get started. Let’s turn life around with training for a life that works a life that works in God’s world. God’s way as God’s image for God’s glory. That starts when you commit to Jesus’ Lord, and you take his name going under the water and rising up again.
Dan: (12:29)
Well, now I think that’s a good place to end Matthew. It is with a great commission to anyone out there who needs to be baptized
David: (12:35)
And to commit to Jesus,
Dan: (12:37)
To go and do that, take on his name and you know, it’s the name of the father, son and holy spirit go and do that. Cause he’s a great way to wrap up. Matthew. Matthew has been a great bookDad I’ve enjoyed. I’ve learned heaps, chatting to you about this ones, listening to you guys are through this. So guys, if you want to grab the study notes for this episode, head over to training for through this. So guys, if you want to grab the study notes for this episode, head over to traniingn for life, redeem.com/ 88. You can grab the study notes there. Hopefully you enjoyed the whole series on Matthew. If you haven’t listened to the whole series, go back and start again from the beginning and listen to the whole way through. And
David: (13:11)
If you missed it, look out in the next few weeks, probably a month or two for the book.
Dan: (13:18)
Yeah. Yeah. We’ll be getting more books out. We already have one out on ax. We have one out on first Timothy and we have one out on the Penta took. so go and check those out. They’re just a train for life, redeem.com. But thank you guys so much for joining us for Matthew for the whole series. Thanks for coming. And just spending time with us. We’d love for you to leave us a review. If you enjoyed this and make sure you hit the subscribe button to join us again next week.
