Matthew 28:18-20 says, “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” I hope you have read that passage before. In fact, I hope if you have not already, then you will memorize these three verses we call the Great Commission. Scholars and casual Bible readers rightly understand that in these verses, Jesus is sending the disciples with a very specific task.
The task is to make disciples. Discipleship is necessary because people need to be saved, and people need to be taught to act, think, and feel like Jesus. That is what this commissioning was all about. Jesus instructed them to baptize those who believed, and to teach those who had been baptized. The substance of the instruction was “all that I commanded.”
Jesus then ascended to the Father. He left behind their marching orders. Not only their marching orders, but ours. Here is an interesting thing. Even though Jesus sends us with these orders to obey, and even though He ascended to the Father. He promises this at the end of that statement, “and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” He is with us. He sends us out, but not as sheep without a shepherd. He sends us out as sheep with a Great Shepherd. He is with us.
He watches over us. He feeds us. He cares for us. He protects us. He defends us. He is with us. When another person disciples us there is a sending. They will spend time with us, they are available to us, they meet with us. But there comes a time because of agreement, circumstances, life changes, or death in which that relationship comes to an end. And we are sent away from that discipling relationship.
But Jesus sends and stays. He commissions and comes with us. It is an amazing reality of the ever-presence of God through the Holy Spirit in the life of every believer. He is always with us. As human disciple-makers, yes, we want to send out disciples, but we are sending them with Jesus. We never were all they needed. We were just a tool for a season that walked alongside them in a physical way, while Jesus was always there and will always be there. That is a comforting thought for the disciple and the disciple-maker.
By His Grace and For His Glory,
Pastor Mark