Praise the Lord! God has blessed us with another week in our life to draw closer to Him as we meditate upon His Word. This week’s passage for the Scripture for the Week meditation is taken from Matthew 28:18-20, which is known as the Great Commission – the command Jesus gave His disciples to go and makes disciples of all nations and teach them His commands as the continuation of the ministry He started. In order to understand the kind of ministry Jesus came to fulfill on earth, we need to understand the purpose of His incarnation. The purpose of His incarnation was to reconcile the fallen and sinful humanity with the holy and righteous God.  Jesus used diverse ministry paradigms to achieve His ministry goal. The context of our ministry on Earth is that, according to the Scripture, God created mankind in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27) but they disobeyed His commands and sinned against Him (Genesis 3:1-24; Romans 5:12). Thus, they lost the glory of God in them and their position before God (Genesis 3:23-24; Romans 3:23). However, the loving and compassionate God wanted to reconcile with mankind whom He created in His own image and likeness and sent His one and only begotten Son Jesus Christ to this world to reconcile sinful humanity with the Holy God and reestablish His fellowship with them. John 3:16-17 states that For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. This means, Jesus did not come by Himself, rather He was sent by the Father with the purpose of saving humanity and offering us eternal life. In the light of this, we can understand that the Son of God (Jesus Christ) came down to this earth as a human being and gave up His life on the cross of calvary as an atoning sacrifice to fulfill the purpose of God in and through His life and ministry.

This was the reason why Jesus repeatedly testified to His followers that He did not come to do anything on His own but to do the will of Him who sent Him. In fact, as Jesus Himself says, He did not say or do anything on His own but only fulfilled what His Father commanded Him to carry out (Deuteronomy 18:18; John 5:18-20; 6:38; 7:16; 8:26-29; 12:49). Jesus also said that He bears witness to what He has seen and heard in the presence of His Father in heaven and He testified everything to all those followed Him, especially to His disciples (John 3:32-33). Similarly, now the disciples had to bear witness to what they have seen and heard from Jesus and they have to testify this to others (Acts 5:32) and they in turn must do the same thing when their turn comes, and such pattern will continue in the same way either until everyone has heard the Good News of salvation through Christ or until the Lord returns (Matthew 24:14; John14:1-3).

At the close of Jesus’ life and mission on earth, the Jews demanded Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, and the Romans did it for them. After Jesus’ death on the cross, burial, and resurrection from the dead, Jesus appeared several times to the apostles and other disciples for forty days before returning to His Father in heaven. Apostle Paul also mentioned Jesus’ post-resurrection appearance when he wrote to the Corinthian Church:

3 … that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)

Again, one last time, He appeared to His remaining eleven disciples just prior to His ascension to heaven and told them that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him and He commissioned His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, baptize them, preach and teach everything Jesus commanded them. Jesus was sent to seek and find the lost in Israel and save the rest of humanity from their sins and give us all eternal life

According to Matthew 28:18, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus by His Father in heaven. This was not the first time the authority was given to Jesus, rather the authority has been given to Christ at all times. During Jesus’ earthly ministry, he said: All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him (Matthew 11:27 [also refer to: John 10:30-38]). Even apostle Paul had the clear picture of who Jesus is ever since he had an encounter with Jesus while traveling from Jerusalem to Damascus to capture and put to trial the followers of Jesus Christ.  With the revelation he received thereafter about Jesus Christ, he proclaimed to the Jews as well as the Gentiles that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah, and the Savior of mankind, who will deliver them from the suffering of the present life and give them eternal life. He wrote to the believers at Philippi that:

6 Jesus, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:6-11)

In addition, Apostle Paul wrote to the believers at Colossae that:

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:15-17)

One of the prominent Old Testament prophets, Daniel, also stated in his prophetical writings (The Book of Daniel) that he saw in his vision of a figure who looked like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven, and authority, glory, and sovereign power is given to Him who looked like a son of man. Prophet Daniel wrote that:

13 In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed (Daniel 7:13-14 [also refer to Isaiah 9:6-7])

We can understand from the description of prophet Daniel that the one who looked like a son of Man in his vision must have been the personification of the pre-incarnate Christ. Thus, Jesus, being God Himself (represented to us as the image of the invisible God and/or exact representation of God [John 10:30; Philippians 2:6; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3]), is the source of authority, glory, and sovereign power from everlasting to everlasting (Ephesians 1:20-22; Jude 1:25).

When Jesus fulfilled the purpose of His earthly life and ministry, He empowered His disciples and authorized them to continue the ministry He was sent to do. As part of their preparations, Jesus taught His disciples how to pray the kind of prayer they must pray [the prayer is usually referred to as the Lord’s Prayer] (Matthew 6:9–13). Jesus showed them how to care for the needy and feed the hungry (Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44). He sent them out to preach the Good News, drive out the demons, and cure diseases, as it is stated in the gospels: When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases (Matthew 10:1-5; Luke 9:1-2). He taught them everything they needed to know about living a life that is pleasing to God, and to continue the ministry He started; in fact, God the Father started at the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1ff; Matthew 1:21; 4:17; Mark 1:15; Luke 19:10). He also commanded them to teach to others everything He had taught to them. With all these factors in effect, just prior to His ascension, Jesus commissioned His disciples for the ministry they were called to and gave them a special command to go far and beyond to 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 He has commanded them, and He gave them authority and power as He commissioned them for the kind of ministry they were called to continue (Matthew 28:18-20):

• • Jesus came to His disciples and commanded them (28:18a)
  • Jesus was given all authority in heaven and on earth (28:18b)
  • The disciples have to go far and beyond (28:19a)
  • The disciples have to make disciples of all nations (28:19b)
  • The disciples have to baptize new disciples in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (28:19c)
  • The disciples have to teach new disciples to obey everything Jesus has commanded them (28:20a)
  • Jesus promised His presence with them always, to the very end of the age (28:20b)

With Jesus commissioning His disciples and His command to them, a great responsibility has come upon the disciples to represent Him in the world and reveal Him to everyone who has not yet come to the saving knowledge of Christ. Jesus commanded His disciples to be His witnesses right where they are and go far and beyond as well, that is, Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). He also commanded them to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19); and teach these new disciples to obey everything He commanded them (Matthew 28:20a). Jesus promised His presence with them to the very end of the age as they carry out the ministry they were commanded to do (Matthew 28:20b).

Dear friends, today, the Holy Spirit anoints you and me for Missio Dei (Mission of God) as Jesus commissioned the apostles just prior to His ascension to heaven. The Great Commission Jesus gave to His disciples is applicable to us also. As devoted followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to continue the ministry of God and fulfill the purpose of God in and through our lives, so that many more will be able to come under God’s grace. Apostle Paul, although not included among the original Twelve, was thoroughly involved in the mission of God. Paul said: For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me (1 Corinthians 15:9-10). He also wrote to the believers in Philippi about the pain and struggle he went through during his ministry: But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me (Philippians 2:17-18). Again, he wrote to young Timothy as his final encouragement: For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:6-7). Let the attitude of Christ and the apostles be our attitude when we engage in the mission of God. Let us pray to our dear Lord to empower and enable us to participate in the Missio Dei faithfully and meaningfully. May the Lord God Almighty bless us all! Amen!