Opening: What have been the most important jobs you have ever had to perform? Be
a parent? Guide a company? Teach students? Give someone good (or bad) news?
Scripture: Sunday’s message is our text today. Read Matthew 28:18-20.
Insights:
- Read Matthew 28:18-20 in as many translations as you can to see how this verse is translated (go to www.biblegateway.com for additional translations). Look for nuances in the words and phrases.
- This is the end of Matthew’s Gospel story of Jesus. These are Jesus’ last words to those He has entrusted with His new Kingdom. What did He say?
1.
He
assured them of His power (verse 18). Surely nothing was outside the power of Jesus
who had died and conquered death. Now they were the servants of a Master whose
authority upon earth and in heaven was beyond all question.
2.
He
gave them a commission (verses 19-20). He sent them out to make all the world His
disciples.
3.
He
promised them a presence. It must have been a staggering thing for eleven
humble Galileans to be sent forth to the conquest of the world. Even as they
heard it, their hearts must have failed them. But, no sooner was the command given,
than the promise was fulfilled through the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).
- This passage is called “The Great Commission.” Before, Jesus sent His disciples only to the Jews; now their mission is worldwide and to all people, exactly what happened in the Book of Acts.
- Jesus uses two Greek imperatives/commands (“go” and “make”) and two Greek participles (“baptizing” and “teaching”). What does that mean? We are commanded to go and make, and while we go and make, we are to baptize and teach. In the process of going and making, we are to baptize and teaching.
Life
Questions:
- With this Great Commission, we must also have the Great Commandment: “You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”[1] Without the Great Commandment (Love God and Love People), the Great Commission is accomplished out of duty, or worse, in a judgmental way (“Get right or get left,” “Turn or burn,” etc.) The Christian must start with the Great Commandment in order to fulfill the Great Commission.
- The disciples were sent out – as we are sent out – on the greatest task in history: make disciples for Jesus Christ. That is the written and affirmed mission of the United Methodist Church. Sound daunting? Don’t let it. We have God’s own Spirit with us day, tomorrow, every day, and everywhere, even to the end of the age!
Prayer
Focus: For tomorrow’s worship celebration, that we would grow
in our love for God and love for others in order to make disciples for the
transformation of the world.
Message
Series: “Send Me.”
Tomorrow’s
Message Title: “…To Go & Make”
