GO WHERE? DO WHAT?

The Great Commission

Matthew 28:16-20

Appropriately, the quarterly concludes the study of Matthew with the last verses. Likewise, Matthew appropriately concluded his gospel with the command to spread the good news everywhere to everyone. And appropriately, I want to begin the study this week by looking at a literal translation.

All authority in heaven and upon earth has been given to me.

Going therefore disciple all the nations/peoples, immersing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit, teaching them to keep/observe all things I commanded you.

And behold I am with you all the days until the end/fulfillment of the age.

Comments:

Jesus first announces His authority. He reminds the Twelve (I know there were only eleven, but the Big 12 is still the Big 12 with only 10 members!) that God gave Him that Divine authority. The passive voice, “is given me” among the Hebrews was often used to avoid speaking the sacred name of God. God gave me this authority, said Jesus, and so you can take my orders as God's direct command to you. What follows is a command, NOT a suggestion!

It's probably ok to translate the next word as a command -Go as the KJV does, but in Greek it's a participle, going. A good way to express the idea would be “as you are going, disciple the people you meet.” Back in the 70's the idea of Lifestyle Evangelism became popular. Rather than limiting evangelism to preaching and soul-winning visits, build evangelism into your daily lifestyle. “Speak a good word for Jesus” whenever you can. Be able to summarize your salvation experience in a minute or two. Develop the ability to give “interim reports” consisting of recent experience with the Lord and what He has done for you.

Disciple the nations/peoples. As in English, the Greek noun disciple becomes the verb to disciple, or make followers of. We spend a lot of time separating salvation and discipleship. Jesus didn't. A call to become a Christian is a call to become a follower, a disciple. When you get caught in that mental trap, as many Christians do, asking am I a Christian, change the question. Instead, ask “Am I following Jesus? We Baptists have a bad habit of getting people to walk the aisle, baptize them, and forget them. As some have said, we dunk 'em and drop 'em. But the command of Jesus was and is to develop people into disciples. A disciple is a maturing Christian, not merely someone who just stepped in the door. I'm glad our church makes a continuing effort to disciple folk with such avenues as new member classes.

Note the call to disciple the nations or the peoples. The Greek word is the root of our word “ethnic.” It means all sorts of people. One major theme of the Book of Acts is the expansion of Christianity from a group of Jews to Hellenized (Greek) Jews to God-fearers like the centurion to Gentiles. Frank Stagg sees the story as the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem to Rome and all sorts of people in between.

Immersing them in the name of the Father... King James broke from the Catholic Church to begin the Anglican Church (Episcopal) which normally “baptizes” by sprinking, usually infants. When he convened the scholars to translate the King James Version he gave them some guidelines. One was always to translate as baptize rather than immerse, because he didn't believe in immersion. Another “guideline” was always to translate “ecclesia” as “church” and never as “congregation” or “gathering.”

Nevertheless, the Greek baptizo means to dip, plunge, or immerse. Scripture talks about John baptizing IN the Jordan, for example. An early handbook of the first century called “The Teaching of the 12 Apostles” suggested, “baptize in living water if you have it; if not, then in still. If you have neither, pour water three times over the head in the name of the Father...” Living water meant a river or stream, with lakes or ponds as a second choice. Note the churches did not adopt this book as part of the New Testament, though it was widely used and we have quite a few copies. (Reminds me of an old Texas story about a severe drought. “It was so dry, Baptists went to sprinkling and Methodists just wiped them off with a damp cloth.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit... Obviously one of the early references that led to the formulation of the doctring of the Trinity. The Council of Nicea in 325 dealt with the problem of whether the Son was of the same or similar substance with the Father (don't ask). The Council desided on the same, Making Christ fully God and fully man (don't ask). The best explanation I've heard was from a prof in seminary who said God had showed Himself to us in at least three ways.

Sometimes I'm asked why Holy Spirit instead of Holy Ghost. Quick answer: the meaning of the word changed. Still in German today, you find Heilige Geist, because geist means spirit. In 1611 when the King James was translated, ghost could mean either spirit or ghost. (Hamlet's apparition of his murdered father is called both ghost and spirit.) Now we use “ghost” to mean only the appearance of a dead person. The HS is not the ghost of Jesus, although He may be said to be the Spirit of Jesus. Incidentally, many scholars us “Jesus” mostly when talking about the man on earth, and “Christ” to talke about the living Word.

Teaching them to observe/keep everything I have commanded you...Discipling is not finished until the teaching is complete. In one sense it's a never completed project, as God continues working on us so long as we live. Again in our Baptist churches, we need to give more attention to this, which is what we are doing in our Bible classes and other classes offered throughout the year. Our pastor makes a conscious effort to appeal to a less committed group on Sunday mornings, but in our Wednesday night service, he aims to go deeper for more committed Christians.

And lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age (aeon)... Notice this promise is connected with the command to disciple. The Lord promises to be present with His disciples as they go into all the world to disciple the peoples of that world! I've very often seen mottoes hanging in homes on plaques and samplers saying “Lo, I am with you always.” Well, there is a sense in which that is true, but the real context is here in the Great Commission. I believe you will also find that most of the Bible promises are made to those carrying out His will and commands. I believe the Lord will be with you in some sense all the time – after all, God is everywhere – but if you want to claim His promise with the strongest assurance, go about His business!

The Cross

Matthew 27:33ff

The cross is at the center of our faith. I had a brilliant theology teacher who regularly insisted to preachers that every message should somehow end with the cross. He practiced that even when he taught Sunday School! That cross led to resurrection, but without the cross, the resurrection would be meaningless. And had the cross been the final word, we would not have heard of Jesus today.

I always think of Paul's life of Christ in a nutshell found in Philippians 2:5ff. The pre-existing Christ was willing to empty Himself to become human (the mystery of the infinite becoming finite!), and not a powerful human, but a servant who was obedient to His Divine Master even to the extent of dying the horrible, disgusting, and shameful death on a cross.

Pilate had given in to mob rule. He allowed he crowd to dictate his decision to send Jesus to the cross. Part of that process was scourging, a vicious whipping that killed many who could not endure it. Then Jesus was compelled to carry the crossbeam (the upright remained in the ground from its last use), but broke under its weight. A man named Simeon was recruited to carry it for him. Incidentally, that man may be mentioned at the end of Paul's letter to the Romans.

The soldiers dropped the crossbeam into place and nailed Jesus to that cross. Scripture says they placed a sign over him as was the custom to show why this man was being executed. The charge Pilate had placed was: This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. In many art works you will see the letters INRI above the crucified Christ. They are Latin letters, and Latin had no J, but used I where we would expect J. So INRI abbreviates Jesus of Nazareth, King (Rex) of the Jews.

Part of Jesus's humiliation were the taunts of bystanders, including “the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders. One sign of their spiritual bankruptcy was their trash talking and mocking the dying man – for that matter, any dying man.

Then from noon until three in the afternoon darkness covered the land. Night fell early, symbolizing the temporary reign of evil. In fact, there has been no darker day in history. In the midst of that darkness, Jesus called out, “Eli,Eli, why have you forsaken me.” Some of the crowd thought he was calling on Elijah to save Him. Actually, He was quoting Psalm 22, which tracks the crucifixion experience remarkably well to have been composed centuries before. It's another example of Jesus leaning on scripture, especially Psalms and Isaiah. I do wonder whether Jesus was only grabbing hold of the opening half of the Psalm that describes the intense pain He was going through. If He was referring us to the whole chapter, in verse 23, the writer turns a corner and pledges to proclaim the deliverance by the Lord and praise Him. In other words the Psalm that begins in pain, ends in victory.

At that point, Jesus died. His last words were, “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.” Note that He really did die. His heart quit beating and He lost consciousness as far as this world is concerned. There was a strong movement in the first century from those influenced by Greek religion to believe easily that Jesus was divine. They had trouble believing He was really human, because to them spirit was good and matter was evil.

Standard orthodox theology states that Jesus was fully God and fully man. Only as a human who did not sin could He offer Himself as a sacrifice for sinful humanity. But always remember through the resurrection God vetoed sin and death and hell, proclaiming that He has the last word and final victory.

Matthew then tells us the temple curtain was split in two from top to bottom. He apparently meant the curtain that hid the Holy of Holies, the most sacred part of the temple, from view. That was a thick curtain, comparable to a theater curtain today. Traditionally that ripping declared that access to God was now open to all through Jesus.

With all of this, an earthquake rocked the whole area, and even the graves cracked open. Many dead people came alive for awhile, “holy” people, and appeared to people in the city – I would guess loved ones. Why this happened, I have no clue. Let me know if it's revealed to you.

Finally, the centurion in charge of the crucifixion detail, after experiencing all this commented, “Surely this was the Son of God.” Note a hard-boiled Roman soldier was moved by this Man, whom the Jewish religious leaders despised. As usual, the Bible gives us a choice, but demands that you choose.

JUDAS AND PETER
Matthew 26:63ff

Sometimes Trump's administration seems to be unraveling. He's fired a whole bunch of people in the last four months. I wonder if Jesus had that feeling on the way to the cross. He knew one disciple would betray Him and another would deny he ever knew Him. Most of the rest would run and hide, afraid of losing their own skins. Only the “one Jesus loved” and some women, including His mother stood by Him. Can you women tells us men why you seem to have had more guts than the men? Were they standing by Mary, Jesus, both?

Consider Judas. All sorts of reasons have been given for his betrayal. Perhaps he needed the money or was merely greedy? One of the writers said he was the treasurer of the group and stole some of their few funds.

Another group of scholars speculates that Judas was looking for Jesus to lead a military revolt to throw out the Romans and re-establish a Jewish empire as the Maccabees had defeated the Greeks. He is introduced to us as Judas Iscariot, which probably refers to the sicarii, a terrorist band called the “long knives.” Simon the Zealot's name suggests he was a member of another such revolutionary group. Those groups continued to emerge for another 100 years, resulting in the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, and the demolition of all Jerusalem 60 years later after the Bar Kochbah revolt. Then the Romans completely razed the city and repopulated it as a Roman emperial city, even changing its name!

Judas may have hoped to force Jesus's hand. He may have been spurred on by the Palm Sunday greeting when the entire town seemed to take to the streets to welcome Jesus. Surely an arrest would fill the streets again in a mass uprising. (Compare the recent “Arab Spring.” In favor of this, when Jesus was arrested, and there was no uprising, he flung his money back in the face of the conspirators.

>>>Side note for any who may be interested. A few years ago a “Gospel of Judas” made a small sensation (oxymoron?) in the news. The tale in this story made Judas a hero, because Jesus asked him to betray him in order that prophesy might be fulfilled. But NT scholars know there are dozens of “gospels” that the church rejected and we have them. You may have heard of the Gospel of Thomas, which some feel may include genuine sayings of Jesus. A significant number of these false gospels however were produced by the gnostic movement that arose from people trying to combine Christianity with Greek religion. Many of these, plus some others, promote a secret knowledge that Jesus only taught a select few. That inside knowledge was – in their view – what got you into heaven, or at least a higher standing. The Church decided the books that were true and useful – the 27 we have now. Occasionally I see ads claiming to sell you the “Hidden Books of the Bible” Or the “Bible Books the Church Doesn't Want You to See.” Nonsense. You can read most of them free online. Just Google them.

Meanwhile, Peter had followed at a distance and found a place around a fire someone had started. He was troubled and mixed up and hurting and wanted to see what was going to happen. He had slept in Gethsemane, but was very much awake now. As he watched and pondered, people began to notice him and talk behind his back. Finally one came forward to ask. Not sure what Peter looked like, but as the self-appointed leader of the disciples, he may have stood out. And there was apparently some kind of dialect difference...think Yankee vs Southerner. So some in the crowd thought they remembered him hanging around Jesus.

So they asked.
He said no.
They asked again.
He said he did not know the Man.
Convinced, they still asked.
And he swore.
Like the fisherman he was.
And when he looked up,
He saw Jesus staring back!
So he left.
Left and wept.
Wept long, cleansing sobs.
Waiting for the resurrection.
And the fish fry on the beach.
Peter, do you love me...
And we need that resurrection too.
Have we betrayed Him?
Denied Him?
Oh yes.
Judas's story is our story.
And so is Peter's.
We need that cleansing sob.
And resurrection.
.

Gethsemane

Gethsemane

Matthew 26:31-46

Both in Gethsemane and previously at the Transfiguration, these three guys fell asleep. At the last supper, they all had pledged to Jesus they had his back. Sure they did. But wait a sec! Before I jump all over them, what about me? And you? When should we have stood up for something or someone and were asleep on the job. When should we have prayed and fell asleep or let our minds wander all over the countryside?

The three dudes here formed some kind of “inner circle” among the 12 members of Jesus's gang. For whatever reason, he seems to have chosen this triad for some special training or experiences. But on this night, they let Him down. Asked especially to support Him, they promptly fell asleep. Jesus paused in his praying and checked on the guys. Maybe He wanted to share more of what was happening or His feelings about it all. Maybe He just wanted to call again for their support. But when He looked in at them, all He could hear was snoring. Takeaway? Maybe that sometimes even the best of us is asleep at the switch, fails our master. Maybe not to brag if you can't deliver?

Jesus's prayer was simple. He was asking the Father to change His plans. As a human being, Jesus was recoiling from going through what He was going to have to. This tells us by the way, that it's ok t ask God to allow us to use plan B or C. Sometimes He will, but that night God said no, and Jesus accepted it.

“Thy will be done.” I fear we toss this phrase around too much and too lightly. Note that Jesus included it in the Lord's Prayer: as in heaven, so in earth. We all want to go to heaven. Is it only to avoid Hell, or is it to do the will of God. We picture that afterlife as a big family reunion, but what if it also involves being on mission for the Lord? How well are you doing His will here on earth?

Remember when Gethsemanes come in your life, don't sleep. Pray. And then go face the task God gives you!