Matt 28:16–20 The Great Commission (GC)

It is perfectly fitting to end the Gospel of Matthew to begin the New Year. The word “commencement” means “beginning” or “start.” Yet, we hear commencement speeches at graduations. I thought it would be better to have commencement speeches to begin the school year. But, I misunderstood graduations. Graduations mark new beginnings. Students are sent into the world to apply what they have learned. This is what the Great Commission speech is. We close the book of Matthew, but we begin a new year reminded of God’s marching orders. You cannot be a Bible-believing Christian and not be familiar with this passage. It would be like being a proud American who cannot recognize an American flag. In Matt 28:16–20, Jesus gives us, his followers, our marching orders. The Great Commission is the reason Jesus is delaying his return. We have one job to do. We are to make disciples of people of all ethnicities. I expect every follower of Jesus to already be familiar with this text, or start becoming familiar with this text if you care about Jesus’ will for your life. 

SIOS: Jesus in all his authority gives us the all-encompassing command to make disciples.

First, Matt 28:16–17 provides the context. We begin in Matt 28:16 with eleven disciples. By this time, Judas is dead. The disciples had gathered in Galilee on the mountain where Jesus commanded them (Matt 26:32; 28:7, 10). In Matt 28:17, upon seeing Jesus some worshipped and some hesitated. Some translations have “some doubted.” I do not think we need to read too much into this. John 20 records the account of Thomas who doubted the resurrection until he saw it with his own eyes. In this text, “some hesitated/doubted” teaches the disciples were not all on the same page from the beginning. There are no clues after this in the book of Acts or any of the letters that the disciples doubted the resurrection.

Second, Matt 28:18–20a presents the Great Commission. Here are three clues to study these three verses. (1) Notice the all-encompassing language, all authority, heaven and earth (everywhere), all nations, all I commanded, all the days until the end of the age (//Dan 7:13–14). (2) Get the verbs right. There is only one command, and it is not “Go.” The only command in Matt 28:19–20 is “Make disciples.” “Go” is a participle, which describes the context for making disciples. Literally, it could be read, after having gone, make disciples…. The verbs, “baptizing” and “teaching," are also participles. They show the way to make disciples. We make disciples by baptizing and by teaching. (3) A third clue is to look for book-ends. In Matthew’s arrangement of the Gospel, in the end, he highlights elements that were at the beginning of the Gospel account: focus on the nations, the worship of Christ, and Jesus’ divine presence with us, “Immanuel” (Matt 1:23).

A/Matt 28:18//Dan 7:13–14 as Background for the Command. Jesus begins in Matt 28:18 claiming to have all authority.  He says, “all authority in heaven and on the earth was given to me.” The concept of a person receiving authority to rule over all things is found in the vision of the Son of Man in Dan 7:13–14. Jesus alluded to this prophecy throughout his ministry. Dan 7:13–14. “…behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. ¹⁴And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” When Jesus says all authority was given to him, he is saying Dan 7:13–14 has been fulfilled in him. The allusions to Dan 7:13–14 are multiple in the Gospel of Matthew. In Matt 10:23, Jesus told his disciples that they would not leave the towns of Israel before the coming of the Son of Man to the Ancient of Days. In Matt 16:18, Jesus told his disciples “there [were] some standing [there] who [would] not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” The Son of Man would be delivered over to sinners (Matt 17:12, 22; 20:18), the Son of Man would give his life as a ransom for many (Matt 20:28), the Son of Man would be in the tomb for three days and three nights, like Jonah (Matt 12:40), the Son of man would be raised from the dead (Matt 17:9), and he would come on the clouds with great power and glory (Matt 24:30). Jesus is saying that between his death and the Great Commission, he went to the Ancient of Days and received his dominion, glory, a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him forever. With this authority, Jesus commands his disciples.

B/ Matt 28:19–20a presents the command and its manner. (1) Now, we find the application in the only command of the passage. Grammatically there is only one imperative. Our English translations are misleading. Often, they infer that “go” is the first command, and “make disciples” is the second command. In Greek, the only command is “Make disciples.” “Go” is a participle. It gives the context for the making of disciples. Making disciples happens after the disciples have gone. So, a better way to translate Matt 28:19 is: “after going, make disciples.” The only way to make disciples of all nations is by going, leaving the mountain they were on, and going to the nations. Jesus’ disciples were to go, and the marching orders were “make disciples.” What is a disciple? The Greek word that translates to disciple means “student” or “one who learns.” So, the students of Jesus were commanded to make students of Jesus. If a student of Jesus made students of Jesus, what was this second generation of students to do? They were to make students of Jesus, and so on. For this reason, Bill Mounce says that Christians are in the cloning business. We are to replicate ourselves. Our command to make students means we make students who are able to make more students of Jesus. The anticipated new disciples were to be people of all nations. When Jesus sent out his disciples in Matt 10, he told them not to go to the gentiles (Matt 10:5) before the coming of the Son of Man (Matt 10:23). Now because Jesus had been enthroned on high, and given all authority, fulfilling Dan 7:13–14 he sends them to the ends of the earth, where he has dominion. There are two more verbs in this sentence. These are participles. (2) They describe the manner we fulfill the command to make disciples. The participles, “by baptizing” and “by teaching” are the verbs that qualify the way churches make disciples. (a) The first step to make disciples is by baptizing. What is baptism? Baptism is the sign of entry into the Church, the New Covenant People of God. It symbolizes the washing away of sins that takes place once someone places their faith in Christ. The order of ways to make disciples is baptizing and teaching. At times we treat baptism more like a graduation ceremony than a sign of entry. First, we baptize those who will be raised in the church to be taught and adults who have placed their faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Then we teach. The baptizing is done in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. It is not the names of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but it is one name. Because it is one name, theologians see an argument for the Trinity. It is one God, one name, with three persons. Another argument for the Trinity in this passage is that Jesus was worshipped in Matt 28:17. Worship is only ever reserved for God in the Bible. (b) The first step to make disciples is by giving people the sign of entry into the church, baptism. The second step to make disciples is by teaching them everything Jesus commanded. Jesus does not tell them to go preach their own ideas, but rather what Jesus taught and commanded. This does not mean that we get a red-letter Bible and just study literally what Jesus commanded. When we study the Gospels, we notice Jesus keeps affirming Moses, and the prophets. Jesus also provides interpretations of the OT. The way we teach everything Jesus commanded is by reading and studying the Old Testament in light of how Jesus taught the Old Testament. We also see that Jesus teaches with the way that he lived his life. He teaches by the way he fulfills Old Testament prophecies, and so we need to be familiar with the Old Testament to understand Jesus. Finally, it also means that we study the NT because it is the library of books God gave the church so that we can learn to apply the teachings of Jesus in all areas of life. There are no graduations for a discipleship class or discipleship school. We continue to learn what Jesus commanded, we keep learning how to apply his teachings in more meaningful ways, and in changing circumstances. Also, we must remember that if we are to obey Jesus’ commandments, we cannot neglect the last commandment which is to make disciples. We are learners, but if all we do is come to church to learn, and never teach anybody, we fail as disciples. Whenever I hold back from sharing the gospel with someone, deep down I fear that I may offend, or that they may not like me. In these times, I fail to believe Jesus’ promise to all of us.

Third, Matt 28:20b closes the Great Commission with a promise: “I am with you all the days until the end of the age.” This promise is tied to both the prophecy of Dan 9:14 that the Son of Man would have an everlasting dominion and the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus is called Immanuel in Matt 1:23. Immanuel means “God with us.” Jesus has the authority to give us the commandments because he is the Lord of all. All people whether they acknowledge it or not belong to Jesus. The call to make disciples means we invite people to bend the knee before King Jesus. We challenge them to turn from sin and trust in Christ’s accomplished work on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. As we are sent out to make disciples, we are not alone. Jesus is with us. This promise gives us great confidence but also great humility. We have confidence because the God of the universe is by our side. We have humility because when we do achieve anything great for God, he was right there with us, comforting us, giving us strength, giving us the right words to speak, softening the hearts of those we ministered to! If we obey Jesus and limit ourselves to teaching what he commanded we will instinctively know that there was nothing that was original with us that led to the conversion of another person. We make disciples not because there is any innate ability in us to convert people, but rather, from Pentecost onwards, Jesus sent his Spirit to empower us to serve him. Whenever we have a conversation with a non-believer, we can be confident that the greatest evangelist, the Holy Spirit is at work with us as much in the conversion of new believers as he is in the lifelong process that we all partake in to become mature believers.

Conclusion: The Gospel of Matthew ends with the GC that echoes themes from the beginning of Matthew. (1) There is a focus on the nations. The OT is very preoccupied with the Promised Land. It was all about entering into the Promised Land. After being sent in exile, it was all about returning to the Land. Now, this group of Jewish disciples of Jesus is told that this movement of followers of Jesus is not limited to this particular location but it was extended to the ends of the earth. We had hints of God’s care for the nations. In Matt 1 foreign women were highlighted in the genealogies. Jesus healed Gentiles, the second feeding of fish and bread, the feeding of the four thousand occurred in Gentile territory. We must be for the nations, for the ethnicities that are different from ours. Racist Christians do not exist. You have to be one or the other. (2) Baby Jesus was worshipped by the foreign Magi. The disciples worshiped Jesus and are called to make worshippers of foreigners. (3) The same way Jesus was called “Immanuel” because God had come in the flesh to be with his people, the Gospel ends with Jesus’ promise that he will never leave us. He is still Immanuel: God with us. He is still with us through his Holy Spirit, to empower us for his service, growing as students and making students of Jesus who themselves obey the GC. Obeying our passage means being involved in your local church. It means being trained to teach others. It means initiating uncomfortable conversations with friends, family about Jesus. It means opening your homes (COVID?!) to strangers to love them or they will not care about your gospel. It also means becoming interested in parts of the world that need the gospel. It means praying and giving financially to support those who go if you cannot go yourself.