Matthew 28.16-20

And here we are...160 days since we started this journey through the Gospel of Matthew, with the question of what it means and looks like to follow Jesus. We learned at the very beginning that Jesus is both the son of David, the king reigning over his kingdom, and the son of Abraham, creating a people who will bless the nations.

And now we are coming to our last devotion on this book, and the same two ideas pop up in vs. 18-19.

¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in^[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”


Did you see that?


Verse 18 says that "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." Jesus is claiming that he is the reigning king of all of heaven and earth. He is the Son of David!!! He is Lord of our lives. Now check out the next line:


"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations..."


This is how Jesus is going to bless the nations as the son of Abraham, by creating a new people of God, a new Israel, who will make disciples of all nations, teaching them how to follow Jesus. This blesses the nations. 


And this is who we are, christians. This is our mission. 


We are called to submit to the Lordship, the reign of the Son of David, and to be the people of the son of Abraham, in order to bless the nations. 


And the way we do this is we make disciples. 


And making disciples consists of two tasks: 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 are to Baptize and teach.


Baptism is a huge, controversial issue that people have debated about for centuries. All I want to say about it is this...we will never fully and completely understand all the intricacies of baptism and how it works and what it does. But what we do know is that Jesus command us to do it, and we need to submit to that. 


So we baptize people, we bring them to a saving relationship with Jesus. 


There is a problem that has occurred in the church. People have equated baptism with evangelism and teaching with discipleship, and the problem is they have separated evangelism and discipleship. 


They see these two things as just that, two different, separate things. 


But in reality, evangelism and discipleship is one and the same thing. 


We are called not just to bring someone to church and get them baptized, then to hand them off to the "professional" disciplers, the preacher or youth minister. 


No, we are called to make disciples. 


This consists no only of baptizing them and bringing them to church, but living life with them for YEARS, teaching them to obey EVERYTHING Jesus commanded this. 


What a HUGE task!!!!


Yet, we have a promise. 


"Surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age."


That is how the book of Matthew ends.


Jesus is reigning and he is calling us to bless the nations by making disciples of all the nations. But we don't have to rely on our own power to do this. He is going to help us. 


So this is the message of the book of Matthew. 


Jesus is king, he is calling you to bless the nations by teaching them how to follow him. And he is going to help you and go with you.


The question is, will you go?