The Great Commission

24 April - Matthew 28:16-20

This text is the finale of Matthew’s gospel. Jesus has risen from the dead but this is the last time He will speak to the disciples in the flesh.

Icebreaker: What do you think would your last advice, instruction or thought to those closest to you if you thought you wouldn’t be seeing them again?

In v16, we are dealing with the eleven, whom Matthew calls disciples, who have assembled on a mountain in Galilee. We don’t have a name for this particular mountain, although the disciples had directions from Jesus. We have seen mountains before in Matthew’s gospel: Jesus preached a long sermon on a mountain (Matthew 5-7), prayed on a mountain after feeding 5,000+ people (Matthew 14:23), right before helping Peter walk on the Sea of Galilee and calming a storm, and was transfigured on the top of a high mountain (Matthew 17:1).

Q.1: What do you think a mountain symbolises in this Gospel?  Is it so that Jesus can be seen or a place where he is nearer to the Father or what?

Looking at Doubt

V.17 It is worth thinking about the actions of the disciples in verse 17: First of all they see him, then they worshipped him but some doubted him, The word used here for “doubt” occurs just one other time in the Bible, in Matthew 14:31. It’s what Peter does when he starts noticing the waves, that undoes his act of walking on water?

 Q.2 What do we think this means? (e.g., do we think some of the disciples couldn’t believe their eyes? Do we think they doubted themselves? Something else?) What are the possibilities, do we think – what could it mean?

Q.3 How is it possible to “worship” and “doubt” at the same time, or is it? What sort of doubting were some disciples indulging in?  Do we doubt in this way?

Q. 4. Does the disciples’ doubt make them more, or less, like us, do we think? How do we feel about this? Why?

Jesus’ Authority and the making of Disciples

After the disciples see and worship Jesus, Jesus comes and says a significant speech to them.

So if we break down what he says we have:

a statement of authority, which opens the speech; Jesus has all authority in the unseen and the seen worlds, as a gift, and this authority grounds the instructions that follow.

Q.5.Jesus announces that he has “all authority in heaven and on earth.” He seems to present this as a reason for the instruction to go and make disciples. What does Jesus’ authority have to do with making disciples, do we think?

Q.6.  What difference does that authority make for the work of making disciples? (e.g., Does it make the work, whatever it is, easier? More likely to succeed?

Q. 7. Jesus is speaking directly to “the eleven.” Are the instructions restricted to these individuals, or do they apply to others such as church leaders and evangelists? Do they apply to us? What do we think?

Making Disciples and what it requires us to Do:

V.19 a complex instruction to the disciples: make disciples, which will require (in the order mentioned) going – to all nations, rather than just to the lost sheep of Israel, baptizing them name of the Trinity, and teaching them to keep all Jesus’ commandments. Here it might be worth recalling that a person might not have had to “go” too far, in the Roman empire, to encounter people of “all nations.” We might want to think of this as an instruction about who to strike up a conversation with, at least as much as it is an instruction about where to locate.

Q.8 How would you think you would go about making disciples?

Jesus is with you

V. 20: an instruction to remember that Jesus is with them to the very end of “the age.” The word for “age” here suggests a VERY long time – it is sometimes translated “forever” in other contexts, and sometimes has the connotation of eternity. In other words, we probably shouldn’t get the impression that this “age” will be over soon. It might also be worth noting that people don’t usually give an instruction to “remember” something unless it will be possible, or even easy, to “forget” it.

Q. 9.  Jesus says “remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Does this statement apply to the individuals who were there, or more widely? Does it apply to us, do we think? Why is it important?

At the end of the study think about what ‘The Great Commission’ means for each member of the group, and pray for each other as you try and follow it through over the next week.

Anne Milton-Worssell 30/03/22