The Great Commission
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. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
The scope of Christ’s authority is the entire universe.
And so the boundaries of what is possible and what is impossible are very thin indeed. Because Jesus has the authority to shift these seemingly intractable boundaries.
And therein lies the point and power of prayer: That Christ has the power to shift anything.
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in 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.
His last commission, to teach people to obey his commands.
ESV The name, not names of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is an early indication of the Trinitarian Godhead, and an overt proclamation of Jesus’ divinity.
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
And so Matthew ends with the reassuring and empowering words of him who came to earth to be “God with us” and the Gospel of Matthew ends with the wonderful affirmation of the constant presence of Jesus with us until the end of the age.
Lonely? Afraid? Full of foreboding?
Christ walks beside you. He is with you always.
ESV Jesus concludes the commission, and Matthew his Gospel with the crucial element of discipleship: the presence of the Master who is “God with us.”
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