“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”
—Matthew 28:18–20
Almost every Christian is familiar with the Great Commission, which is found in the final verses of the book of Matthew: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19).
We spend a lot of time focusing on the commands of this verse — go, make disciples, baptize them, teach them to obey — and this is right and good. But we also need to focus on another word, the second word in verse 19: therefore.
Many of us skip over the therefore, but that’s a mistake. (As the Bible teachers say, whenever you see the word therefore, you should ask what it’s there for.) The therefore in this verse tells us why we go and make disciples; it’s the reason for our going and the grounds of our disciple-making. It’s the because of the Great Commission. And it refers us back to the previous verse, verse 18.
Why do we go and make disciples? We go and make disciples because all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus. Can you see it? He says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore… ” We could accurately rephrase “Go therefore” as, “For that reason, go.”
Let’s look at two basic things about Jesus’ statement in verse 18.
First, notice that he says, “All authority in heaven and earth.” How much authority has been given to Christ? All of it. Peter reaffirms this when he says of Jesus, “he is Lord of all” (Acts 10:36).
If you’re looking for specific examples, we find in the Bible that God has authority over:
Coin tosses — “The lot is cast in the lot, but its every decision is from the LORD” (Proverbs 16:33).
The heart of the king — “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will” (Proverbs 21:1).
Weather — “He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses” (Psalm 135:7).
Wealth — “The LORD makes poor and makes rich” (1 Samuel 2:7).
Nations — “God reigns over the nations” (Psalm 47:8).
Sparrows — “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father”(Matthew 10:29).
Life and death — “The LORD kills and brings to life” (1 Samuel 2:6).
All of these, and more, are included in the authority that was given to Jesus Christ, which brings us to the second point: Notice that Jesus says in the Great Commission passage that this authority “has been given” to him.
Who gave all authority to Jesus? God the Father did. We know this, because that’s what Jesus tells us in the gospels: “All things have been handed over to me by my Father,” he said (Matthew 11:27). And we also read in John that, “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand” (John 3:35). So, it is the Father who gave all authority to the Son.
When was it given to him? Pay attention to the verb tenses in the passages we’ve looked at. They don’t say that all authority will be given to Jesus at some time in the future. No, all authority has been given; all things have been handed over; the Father has given all things. These are past-tense words. It happened in history, more than 2,000 years ago.
And what was given to him in the past, he holds onto still: “his dominion is an everlasting dominion” (Daniel 4:34); “his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end” (6:26).
What authority, then, is excluded from Christ’s rule? None of it. Not a speck. Not one square inch. His authority extends even to those who don’t believe in him.
Jesus has all authority over all things, and he has it forever.
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© 2024 Josh Bishop. joshbishopwrites.com