The Great Commission
Matthew 28:16-20
Pastor Bob Hiller
6/19/2011
Matthew 28:18-20 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
1. The Great Commission always begins and ends with the ____________.
2. The Great Commission is more about what Jesus ________ __________ than what we are ________ ________.
3. The Great Commission is about ________ ________ growth in the faith, that is, ____________, not forced ____________.
Scripture Readings
Genesis 1:26-2:3
Acts 2:14a,22-36
Matthew 28:16-20
Take It With You!
Here we will offer thoughts and meditations on the message to help us as we contemplate and discuss and wrestle with what we are hearing.
The Christ whom Matthew proclaims will send us out on missionary paths that run through all the world, paths of defeat and persecution, perhaps, but also paths on which we will witness to Him, speak in the power of the Holy Spirit, and win His victories according to His will. He can and will make us strong to face the division and confusions of our day undismayed. He will give us eyes to see the Kingdom where men see it not, in the Sower who goes out to sow His seed. He will give us ears to hear the footfalls of His judgment in the noisy clutter of our world and teach us to know with fear and trembling the precarious preciousness of the grace of God....
He will judge us with His cross and forgive us with His resurrection. He will melt down the stubborn stuff of our heroic manhood and remold us into men of God.
He will make disciples of us; He will make of us the holy, Christian, apostolic church. It will not be a very brilliant church created by the Christ of Matthew; perhaps not a very successful church, not so well integrated in our communities, not so well accepted as we once were. Perhaps we shall even be a persecuted church again. But we shall be church, real church, His church; and we shall live forever. We shall rise from our graves and break through the gates of death when He shall come and cry once more, "Follow Me!"
Martin Franzmann, Follow Me: Discipleship According to Saint Matthew.
