Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 28:18
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
18 20. The Last Charge to the Apostles
18. came ] Rather, came up to them, near to them.
power ] Rather, authority.
is given ] Properly, was given, cp. ch. Mat 11:27, and Php 2:8-10. These words, in which the infallible King Himself announces His eternal possession of the Kingdom, St Matthew, who is essentially the historian of the Kingdom, alone records.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth – The Son of God, as Creator, had an original right to all things, to control them and dispose of them. See Joh 1:3; Col 1:16-17; Heb 1:8. But the universe is put under him more particularly as Mediator, that he might redeem his people; that he might gather a church; that he might defend his chosen; that he might subdue all their enemies, and bring them off conquerors and more than conquerors, Eph 1:20-23; 1Co 15:25-27; Joh 5:22-23; Phi 2:6-11. It is in reference to this, doubtless, that he speaks here power or authority committed to him over all things, that he might redeem, defend, and save the church purchased with his own blood. His mediatorial government extends, therefore, over the material world, over angels, over devils, over wicked men, and over his own people.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mat 28:18
All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.
The prerogative of the Saviour
I. The prerogative itself.
1. Its nature-power. This means authority and ability.
2. Its extent-all.
3. Its acquisition-given.
II. View it in reference to his personal character. When an individual obtains elevation we are anxious to know something of his qualities. We would not wish an ignorant, unfaithful, impatient, unmerciful man to possess power. Christ gave Himself for us; power in good hands.
III. His prerogative in reference to his enemies.
IV. In reference to the saints. (W. Jay.)
Christs power beneficent
Had Cornelius Winter obtained an income of ten thousand a year, he would not have been the better for it. But many others would; and I know-being then under his care-that when he had an addition of two hundred a-year to his small income, it was no advantage to him; he never added one article to his dress, or one dish to his table, or one ornament to his dwelling. If Howard-the apostle of compassion-had obtained all the power of the late Napoleon, oh! how many millions would have been blessed! How grievous it is to see a cold-blooded, selfish wretch rising up in life, and prospering I for you know that his power will be only a capacity to insult, to strip, to oppress, to grind the faces of the poor. But how delightful it is to see a man of tenderness and generosity rising! for you know that his increased power will be a capacity to teach the ignorant, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to cause the widows heart to sing for joy, and to bring down blessings upon the heads of those who are ready to perish. But what was a Winter, and what was a Howard, to the Friend of sinners! Their hearts were no better than ice or iron, compared to His. Ah! Christians, we here find that power, absolute power, is placed just where it should be placed-where it is safe, where it is beneficent, where it will be glorious. (W. Jay.)
The power and authority of Christ
I. An account of the extent of our Saviours power; that He is invested with all power, both in heaven and earth.
II. A declaration of the original of that unlimited power and authority. All power, saith He, is given Me, that is, from the Father.
III. The commission He thereupon grants His disciples-Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations.
IV. The doctrine which all nations were to be taught, and into which they were to be baptized.
V. The practice of those who were to be baptized into this faith-teaching, them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you.
VI. The promise of effectual assistance to the disciples sent forth upon this commission-And lo! I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. (S. Clarke.)
The undelegated rule and perpetual presence of Christ in His Church
I. The Lord Jesus Christ is the source of all authority.
II. The duty of those commissioned by Christ. To teach, not to sacrifice. To baptize.
III. The special promise which is to animate Christs true disciples. (R. Hibbs, M. A.)
Spiritual power the great want of the Church
Oh I how we want all power now. We all have our theories of the condition of the Church just now. I do not know what yours may be. Mine is not very bright, but I have this one belief in my soul, that what is wanted most of all is one great revival of spiritual life-one wonderful downpour of the grace of God from heaven to flood all the churches. It seems to me we get something like the barges and the vessels down yonder at London Bridge when the tide is out. There they lie in the mud. There are gangs of men, but they cannot get at these vessels and barges. What is to be done? Now, will you great engineers tell me how much horse power, how much steam power you want? There is nothing wanted but the tide. When the tide rises every barge begins to walk like a thing of life, and every vessel can readily receive its cargo and go out to sea in due time. When the heavenly tides of spiritual blessing begin to come up nothing can withstand them. What a glorious time it was when Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Wesley were going up and down this land like twin seraphim, burning everywhere with the Divine flame, and carrying everywhere the Divine life. Can this be done again? Can the masses of the people be raised? Can we raise those that are sunk in ignorance and degradation? Do you think it cannot be done? It must be done. It shall be done. And this is the reason why we expect it: All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. He can find another student in Oxford; He can find another potboy in Gloucester; He can find some one somewhere upon whom He can pour out His Holy Spirit, and send Him forth to preach with a tongue of fire that shall wake up the churches, and startle the world. Let us cry to God that it may be so. But we must first deeply feel the necessity of it, and rejoice that this necessity is met by the text: All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. (R. Hibbs, M. A.)
Power on earth
What do we mean by power on earth? The politician will answer you, the statesman, the preacher, the orator. It is influence, the ability to turn men to ones own will, to check, curb, turn, and use them, change their natures, and make them subjects and servants in body, soul, and spirit. That is power; something very different from the brute-force of a Samson or a Caesar, and far higher. Still, Caesar, in the organized government of Rome, did possess very considerable power, to which the world was obedient, whether through love or fear. And another such power there was-the ancient idol-worship of Rome and Greece. By these Satan held empire over the world. Two powers they were; yet in our Lords time so closely connected as to be almost one and the same. The Roman Emperor was the universal ruler. The religions of Roman, Greek, and Barbarian differed in little but the names of their false gods. The Jew alone, though subject to the Roman, maintained his belief in the One God, Creator, and Almighty. Thus the Roman empire and the Roman heathenism were but as one power against all other religions. And who was coming forward, thus claiming a new power, to be alone supreme in the world? Who came to overthrow the ancient, mighty, all-but-universal idolatry-the very perfection of empire to the statesman of that day, the very perfection of religion to the lovers of a gorgeous ceremonial, and the indulgers of human pride and selfish passion? Who came to be King and God? One whose public execution was written in the Roman records. One who preached humility as the only true greatness, who substituted penitence and self-denial for the indulgence of flesh and spirit. A Jew, too, of all races the most despised by Roman and Barbarian alike The cause of Christ to the shrewdest human calculation must have looked simply hopeless; His claim to any power whatever a silly boast. Force His followers could not, might not, use. Argument they might; and then they came at once face to face with death. Yet the disciples went forth preaching Christ crucified, and risen again as the life of the world. It was not an attractive doctrine, nor an easy morality, that they preached. There was offered no earthly gain, or pleasure, or honour. And yet old Rome left her idols to worship Jesus; her emperors became Christians; the power of the world fell; the religion of the world was changed. (W. Michell, M. A.)
Christs universal dominion
I. The grounds upon which Christ administers this providential government.
1. It pertains to Him as the Eternal Word, by whose immediate agency the worlds were produced.
2. As the second Adam-both Son of man and Son of God.
3. By virtue of His Fathers grant.
4. Acquired through suffering and death.
5. Necessary to His government of the Church.
II. The consequences which flow from this momentous truth,
1. It gives unity to history.
2. It explains to us the intermingling of mercy with providence.
3. It gives wealth of consolation to the Christian. (B. M. Palmer, D. D.)
The universal dominion of Christ, the foundation of the commission which His ministers receive, and His promised presence their encouragement in fulfilling it
I. The universal dominion of Christ here asserted-All power, etc. The word power in our language is ambiguous. Sometimes it signifies ability or capacity, and sometimes rightful authority. In both these senses it is true of Christ; He has both the ability to act and the authority to warrant His acting.
1. That as a Divine Person the Saviour has all power inherent in Himself.
2. In virtue of office, the power here spoken of is delegated to Christ-All power is given, etc.
3. This power and authority extend to universal nature.
4. This power is deposited in Christ as the Head of the Church, and to be exercised for her benefit.
5. This power is to be exercised in the destruction of all who do not submit to it.
II. The commission given by Christ to his ministers in virtue of that power with which he is invested.
1. That it is only to those who are called by God, and qualified for His service, that this commission is given.
2. This commission extends to all nations as regards the persons to be benefited by it.
3. It embraces all that the Saviour has made known in His word.
III. To consider the encouragements afforded to the ambassadors of Christ in the discharge of their duty.
1. Christ is with His Church and people always; not His essential but gracious presence.
2. A particular call to notice this truth, I am with you always. How highly is Jesus exalted. (R. McIndoe.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 18. And Jesus came and spake unto them] It is supposed by some that the reason why any doubted was, that when they saw Jesus at first, he was at a distance; but when he came up, drew near to them, they were fully persuaded of the identity of his person.
All power is given unto me] Or, All authority in heaven and upon earth is given unto me. One fruit of the sufferings and resurrection of Christ is represented to be, his having authority or right in heaven to send down the Holy Spirit – to raise up his followers thither – and to crown them in the kingdom of an endless glory: in earth, to convert sinners; to sanctify, protect, and perfect his Church; to subdue all nations to himself; and, finally, to judge all mankind. If Jesus Christ were not equal with the Father, could he have claimed this equality of power, without being guilty of impiety and blasphemy? Surely not; and does he not, in the fullest manner, assert his Godhead, and his equality with the Father, by claiming and possessing all the authority in heaven and earth? – i.e. all the power and authority by which both empires are governed?
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Mark saith, Mar 16:15-18, And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Our blessed Lord in these three last verses:
1. Asserts his power and authority.
2. He delegates a power.
3. He subjoins a promise.
The power and authority which he asserts to himself is, All power both in heaven and earth, Act 10:36,42; Eph 1:20-22; power of remission of sins, Luk 24:47, of congregating, teaching, and governing his church; a power to give eternal life to whomsoever he pleased. This was inherent in him as God blessed for ever, given to him as our Mediator and Redeemer, given him when he came into the world, but more especially confirmed to him and manifested to be given him at his resurrection and ascension, Phi 2:9,10. Having declared his power, he delegates it:
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations; the Greek is , make disciples all nations; but that must be first by preaching and instructing them in the principles of the Christian faith, and Mark expounds it, telling us our Saviour said, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature, that is, to every reasonable creature capable of hearing and receiving it. I cannot be of their mind, who think that persons may be baptized before they are taught; we want precedents of any such baptism in Scripture, though indeed we find precedents of persons baptized who had but a small degree of the knowledge of the gospel; but it should seem that they were all first taught that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and were not baptized till they professed such belief, Act 8:37, and John baptized them in Jordan, confessing their sins, Mat 3:6. But it doth not therefore follow, that children of such professors are not to be baptized, for the apostles were commanded to baptize all nations: children are a great part of any nation, if not the greatest part, and although amongst the Jews those that were converted to the Jewish religion were first instructed in the law of God before they were circumcised, yet the fathers being once admitted, the children were circumcised at eight days old; nor were they under any covenant different from us, though we be under a more clear manifestation of the same covenant of grace, of which circumcision was a sign and seal to them, as baptism is to us. Infants are capable of the obligations of baptism, for the obligation ariseth from the equity of the thing, not from the understanding and capacity of the person; they are also capable of the same privileges, for of such is the kingdom of God, as our Saviour hath taught us.
All nations: the apostles were by this precept obliged to go up and down the world preaching the gospel, but not presently. So it is plain that the apostles understood their commission, from Act 1:8; 3:26; 13:46; 18:6,7; Ga 2:7. They were first to preach and to baptize amongst the Jews, and then thus to disciple all nations. Pastors and teachers who succeeded the apostles were not under this obligation, but were to be fixed in churches gathered, as we learn from the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles of the apostles. They by this commission have authority in any place to preach and to baptize, but are not under an obligation to fix no where, but to go up and down preaching in all nations.
Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Baptizing them is no more than washing them with water. We read of the baptism of pots and cups, Mar 7:8, (we translate it washing, ) which we know may be by dipping them in water, or by pouring or sprinkling of water upon them. It is true, the first baptisms of which we read in holy writ were by dippings of the persons baptized. It was in a hot country, where it might be at any time without the danger of persons lives. Where it may be, we judge it reasonable, and most resembling our burial with Christ by baptism into death; but we cannot think it necessary, for God loveth mercy rather than sacrifice, and the thing signified by baptism, viz. the washing away of the souls sins with the blood of Christ, is in Scripture expressed to us by pouring and sprinkling, Eze 36:25; Heb 12:24; 1Pe 1:2.
In the name of the Father, &c.; in the Greek it is, , into the name. In the name doth not only import the naming of the names of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost upon them, but, in the authority, or (which is indeed the chief) into the profession of the trinity of the persons in the one Divine Being: dedicating the persons baptized to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and thereby obliging them to worship and serve God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; for in baptism there is both a solemn dedication of the person to God, and a solemn stipulation: the person baptized either covenanting for himself that he will be the Lords, or his parents covenanting for him that he shall be the Lords; which covenant doth both oblige the parents to do what in them lieth in order to that end, and also the child, the parents covenanting for no more than the child was under a natural and religious obligation to perform, if such covenant had never been made by its parents on its behalf.
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. There is a teaching must go before baptism of persons grown up; and this was the constant practice of the apostles. It is fit men should act as rational creatures, understanding what they do. And there is a teaching which must follow baptism; for baptism without obedience, and a living up to that covenant in which we are engaged, will save no soul, but lay it under a greater condemnation. The apostles might teach nothing but what Christ had commanded them, and they were bound to teach whatsoever Christ had commanded them. Here now is the rule of the baptized persons obedience. We are bound to no obedience but of the commands of Christ, and to a perfect obedience of them, under the penalty of eternal condemnation. When Mark saith, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, it doth not imply that baptism is absolutely necessary to salvation, or in the same order with faith in Christ; but that the contempt of it is damnable, as being a piece of presumptuous disobedience; and such a faith is to be understood there, under the notion of believing, as worketh by love.
And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world: I am and I will be with you, and those who succeed you in the work of the ministry, being called of me thereunto. I will be with you, protecting you, and upholding that ordinance, and blessing you, and all others of my faithful ministers that labour for making me and my gospel known, with success.
Unto the end of the world; not of this age only, but of the world: my ministry begun in you shall not fail, nor shall the adding of souls to the number of them who shall be saved (as a token of my gracious presence with you) fail, till the world shall be determined, and the new heavens and the new earth shall appear. What Mark addeth concerning the signs that should follow those that believed, had a particular reference to the times immediately following Christs ascension into heaven, and is to be understood of those miraculous operations which were to be wrought by the apostles, and others, for a further confirmation of the doctrine of the gospel by them preached. Matthew says nothing of them here. There is no promise of Christs presence with his ministers to enable to such operations to the end of the world; but with his ministers preaching, baptizing, and teaching men to observe and to do whatsoever he hath commanded them, he hath promised to be, till time shall be no more.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And Jesus came and spake unto them,…. To the eleven disciples and apostles; for though there might be so large a number as before observed, yet the following words were only spoken to the apostles:
saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth; which is to be understood of him, not as God, who has the same original and underived power and authority over all creatures, and things in heaven and earth, as the Father has; but as mediator, to whom all things are delivered by the Father; and not of a power of doing this, or the other thing, or of omnipotence, being the Almighty; nor of doing miracles, and forgiving sins, which he had, and exercised before his death and resurrection, but of governing: he was king before, but his kingdom was not with observation; but now he was declared, and made manifest, to be both Lord and Christ; he had “all” power and authority for the settling the affairs of his church and kingdom, to appoint offices and officers in it, and, to bestow gifts upon men, to qualify them for the same, and to institute ordinances to be observed till his second coming: and this power of his reached to things in heaven; he having the angels in heaven subject to him, as ministering spirits to be sent forth by him at his pleasure; and all the gifts of the Spirit to dispose of as he thought good; and to things on earth, not only to the saints, whose King he is, and who are made willing to serve him; but to all flesh, to kings and princes, who rule and reign by him; and even to all the wicked of the world, who in some shape or another are made to subserve the ends of his mediatorial kingdom and government: and this is not usurped power, but what is given him, and what he has a right to exercise; having finished sin, abolished death, overcome the world, and destroyed the devil; and must reign till all enemies are subject to him: and this he says, and it was necessary to say it at this time, partly on account of his late sufferings and death, which were attended with weakness and reproach; and partly on account of the following commission he gives to his disciples, that it might be seen and believed, he had power and authority sufficient to give them such an one; as also to animate and encourage them under all the weakness, contempt, and persecution that should attend them in their ministry. The Syriac and Persic versions add, “as the Father hath sent me, even so I send you”, as in Joh 20:21, from whence these words seem to be taken.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
All authority ( ). Jesus came close to them () and made this astounding claim. He spoke as one already in heaven with a world-wide outlook and with the resources of heaven at his command. His authority or power in his earthly life had been great (Matt 7:29; Matt 11:27; Matt 21:23). Now it is boundless and includes earth and heaven.
Hath been given () is a timeless aorist (Robertson, Grammar, pp. 836f.). It is the sublimist of all spectacles to see the Risen Christ without money or army or state charging this band of five hundred men and women with world conquest and bringing them to believe it possible and to undertake it with serious passion and power. Pentecost is still to come, but dynamic faith rules on this mountain in Galilee.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Came to. Verse 17 evidently describes the impression made by seeing him at a distance. Possibly from feeling of modesty they had not ventured close to him. Jesus now approaches and addressed them.
Spake – saying [] . Two different words are here used to express speech, with a nice distinction which can hardly be conveyed without paraphrase. The verb lalein is used of speaking, in contrast with or as a breaking of silence, voluntary or imposed. Thus the dumb man, after he was healed, spake [] ; and Zacharias, when his tongue was loosed, began to speak [] . In the use of the word the writer contemplates the fact rather than the substance of speech. Hence it is used of God (Heb 1:1), the point being, not what God said, but the fact that he spake to men. On the contrary, legein refers to the matter of speech. The verb originally means to pick out, and hence to use words selected as appropriate expressions of thought, and to put such words together in orderly discourse. Here, then, we have Jesus first breaking silence [] , and then discoursing [] .
Power [] . Better, authority, as Rev.
Is given [] . Lit., was given, by the divine decree.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
18. And Jesus approached and spoke to them. His approach unquestionably removed all hesitation. Before relating that the office of teaching was committed to the disciples, Matthew says that Christ began by speaking of his power; and not without reason. For no ordinary authority would here have been enough, but sovereign and truly divine government ought to be possessed by him who commands them to promise eternal life in his ham to reduce the whole world under his sway, and to publish a doctrine which subdues all pride, and lays prostrate the whole of the human race. And by this preface Christ not only encouraged the Apostles to full confidence in the discharge of their office, but confirmed the faith of his gospel in all ages. Never, certainly, would the Apostles have had sufficient confidence to undertake so arduous an office, if they had not known that their Protector sitteth in heaven, and that the highest authority is given to him; for without such a support it would have been impossible for them to make any progress. But when they learn that he to whom they owe their services is the Governor of heaven and earth, this alone was abundantly sufficient for preparing them to rise superior to all opposition. As regards the hearers, if the contemptible appearance of those who preach the gospel weakens or retards their faith, let them learn to raise their eyes to the Master himself, by whose power the majesty of the Gospel ought to be estimated, and then they will not venture to despise him when speaking by his ministers.
He expressly calls himself the Lord and King of heaven and earth, because, by constraining men to obey him in the preaching of the gospel, he establishes his throne on the earth; and, by regenerating his people to a new life, and inviting them to the hope of salvation, he opens heaven to admit to a blessed immortality with angels those who formerly had not only crawled on the world, but had been plunged in the abyss of death. Yet let us remember that what Christ possessed in his own right was given to him by the Father in our flesh, or—to express it more clearly—in the person of the Mediator; for he does not lay claim to the eternal power with which he was endued before the creation of the world, but to that which he has now received, by being appointed to be Judge of the world. Nay, more, it ought to be remarked, that this authority was not fully known until he rose from the dead; for then only did he come forth adorned with the emblems of supreme King. To this also relate those words of Paul:
he emptied himself, ( ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσε,) therefore God hath exalted him, and given to him a name which is above every other name, (Phi 2:7.)
And though, in other passage the sitting at the right hand of God is placed after the ascension to heaven, as later in the order of time; yet as the resurrection and the ascension to heaven are closely connected with each other, with good reason does Christ now speak of his power in such magnificent terms.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(18) All power is given unto me.Literally, all authority was given, the tense used being that in which men speak of something that occurred at a given point of time. We may possibly connect it with St. Pauls use of the same tense in the Greek of Php. 2:8. The exaltation came, the authority was given, as at the moment of the Resurrection, and as the crown of His obedience unto death.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18. And Jesus came and spake And as he came and spake in the fulness of his power, all shadow of doubt disappeared from every mind.
All power is given unto me His death had finished the old dispensation. It had brought in the new. Thereby the kingdom of God had come with power. Jesus, returning from paradise, came in the glory of his kingdom. All power is given unto him. Eleven disciples had not tasted death until they had seen him come in his kingdom, endowed with “all power.” See note on Mat 16:28. This was the completion of the First Coming, or Advent. The second will be his Advent to judge the world. See on Mat 10:23; Mat 16:27. But the coming seen in vision by Daniel (chapter vii) is not his coming to our world. It is a scenic picture of his endowment with “all power” by his Father in heaven. His ascension put him in complete possession of that kingdom; or, rather, this his coming as seen by his apostles, and that his coming as seen in vision by Daniel, are different glimpses of the same great coming. Of that coming the part seen by the apostles is rather at or after his resurrection, when he came from hades and the grave to the world. That seen by Daniel is rather the completing part at his ascension to the presence and right hand of God. As Paul says: “He raised him from the dead, and set him far above all principality,” etc. Eph 1:20-21. “He became obedient unto death wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name,” etc. Php 2:8-9. “Peter standing up with the eleven said Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Act 2:14; Act 2:36. “To this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.” Rom 14:9. “He hath raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come,” etc. Eph 1:19-20. Of this last passage, Dan 7:13, is a visionary, pictorial, prophetic representation. These and other texts prove that Christ’s resurrection and ascension were a full coming in his kingdom.
It seems to me the plain doctrine of Scripture, that at the death of Christ his kingdom came with power, and by his resurrection, he came in his kingdom. Mat 16:28.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” ’
‘Jesus came to them.’ They had seen Him at a distance, but now He approached them and their doubts vanished. We are not told where Jesus had been meanwhile, apart from the fact that what He now says confirms that He had been in His Father’s presence. For He spoke to them and said, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” Here He is expanding on the authority that He has constantly revealed throughout His life so that this is a powerful and strong statement. It is declaring that He has been openly proclaimed as King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev 19:16), that nothing now remains outside His control (Eph 1:19-23), that He is Lord of Heaven and earth (compare Mat 11:25; and see Act 17:24) and that He has received again the glory which was His before the world was (Joh 17:5). Paul thus tells us that He rose above all the powers of the heavens and that all principalities and powers in heavenly places were made subject to Him (Eph 1:21-23). As regards earth His Kingly Rule, which had been revealed especially in His power over evil spirits (Mat 12:28), has been established and confirmed. The picture is thus of the Son of Man who as Israel’s king has come out of suffering to the throne of God to receive His worldwide and eternal Kingly Rule and glory and dominion (Dan 7:14). The child Who was born and the Son Who was given has had the government put on His shoulders so that He might reign over the whole sphere of His Kingly Rule (Isa 9:6-7). God has highly exalted Him and given Him the Name which is above every Name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, with the result that He has been declared to be ‘Lord’ (YHWH) (Php 2:9-11). Men had refused Him that authority, but God has confirmed it and it is now to be manifested so that all men will be shortly made aware of it (compare Mat 26:64), and never more so than when the wind and fire descended on His disciples in the Temple area (Acts 2). For Kingly Rule belongs to the Lord, and He rules over the nations (Psa 22:28), and YHWH has set His king upon His holy hill (Psa 2:6). Thus the world will never be the same again, for Jesus is King and is at work among men. He Who refused Satan’s offer of all the kingdoms of the world if He would rule them in his way (Mat 4:8) has received something greater than even Satan could have imagined. He is King of both Heaven and earth.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 28:18. All power is given unto me, &c. Our Saviour here declares all power and authority to be given to him as Mediator at his resurrection: in consequence of which power, he commissions his disciples to convert, baptize, and instruct the world. There is no doubt but this power is part of the exaltation spoken of by St. Paul, to which God raised the human nature of Christ, in his mediatorial capacity, for his sufferings. See Phillip. Mat 2:6, &c.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 28:18 . [41] ] From feelings of modesty and reverence, the eleven had not ventured to go quite close to Him.
] with all the emphasis of the conviction that He was triumphant at last: was given to me , etc., was practically given, that is, when the Father awoke me out of death. Thereby His state of humiliation came to an end, and the resurrection was the turning-point at which Christ entered into the heavenly glory, in which He is to reign as till the time of the final surrender of His sway into the hands of the Father (1Co 15:28 ). It is true, no doubt, that when first sent forth by God He was invested with the over all things (Mat 11:27 ; Joh 13:3 ); but in His state of it would, of necessity, come to be limited by the conditions of that human life into which He had descended. With His resurrection, however, this limitation was removed, and His fully and absolutely restored, so that He once more came into complete possession of His premundane (Joh 17:5 ; Luk 24:26 ; Phi 2:9 f.; Rom 14:9 ; Eph 1:20 ff; Eph 4:10 ; 1Co 15:25 ff.), the in which He had existed as the , and to which He was again exalted as the glorified Son of man. Comp. on Joh 1:14 .
] all authority , nothing being excepted either in heaven or earth which can be referred to the category of . Some, unwarrantably interpreting in a rationalistic sense, have understood this to mean the “potestas animis hominum per doctrinam imperandi” (Kuinoel), or, as Keim expresses it, the handing over to Him of all spirits to be His instruments in carrying out His purposes in the world, or absolute power to make all necessary arrangements for the establishment of the Messianic theocracy (Paulus), or power over the whole world of humanity with a view to its redemption (Volkmar), and such like. What is really meant, however, is the munus regium of Christ, free from all limitation , without, however, compromising in any way the absolute supremacy of the Father; Joh 14:28 ; 1Co 15:27 ; 1Co 11:3 .
[41] Comp. for ver. 18 ff., Theod. Schott in the Luther. Zeitschr . 1871, p. 1 ff.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1415
THE APOSTLES COMMISSION
Mat 28:18-20. And Jesus came, and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
THE Apostles spoke and wrote in a most authoritative manner. They issued commands, promises, and threats, in the name of God. We therefore naturally inquire, by what authority they acted. The passage before us gives a most satisfactory account.
In unfolding to yon these words of our Lord, we will consider,
I.
The commission which he gave to his Apostles
This commission was very plain and express
[Jesus, as God, possessed all power equally with the Father; hut, as Mediator, he received his power from the Father. He received it, partly, that by means of it he might execute his mediatorial office [Note: Joh 17:2.]; and, partly, as a reward for executing it [Note: Php 2:8-11.]. This power extended over heaven and earth. Less than this would not have sufficed for the ends for which it was given; but by this he is enabled to overrule every thing for the accomplishment of his own purpose. Nor is it at all diminished by the lapse of ages. It shall indeed cease to act at the last day [Note: 1Co 15:28.]; there will not then be any occasion for the exercise of it. But till all the members of the Church be glorified, Jesus will exert this power for their good; and his authority will be the hope and consolation of them all.
It was upon this that he founded the commission he gave to his Apostles. He had formerly sent them to instruct the Jews; he now extends their commission to the Gentiles.
They were to teach all nations. As they were to baptize men in the name of the sacred THREE, no doubt they were first to make known the persons and offices of the holy Trinity. They were to declare the Father, as our offended, but reconciled, God and Father; they were to make known the Son, as the sinners advocate and propitiation; they were to set forth the Holy Ghost, as the enlightener, comforter, and sanctifier of Gods elect.
They were to baptize their converts in the name of the sacred Three. Having proselyted men to the Christian faith, they were to initiate them into covenant with God by baptism. But though they first taught adults, and then baptized them, they reversed this order with respect to infants. They took care, however, that in all cases the doctrine they preached should be recorded in the baptismal rite; and that every Christian should either expressly or virtually acknowledge it.
They were also to instruct their hearers in practical religion. It is evident they were not to be merely moral preachers. They must of necessity insist much on the offices of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; but they were also to inculcate every moral duty, and to enforce every obligation, whether toward God or man.]
II.
This commission being so arduous, he added a promise for their encouragement
[The Apostles might well have been discouraged from attempting to execute so difficult a service. They were, in themselves, poor, mean, and illiterate: they had to propagate principles new, strange, detested: they had to oppose the lusts and prejudices of mankind: they bad to bring men from sin to a life of holiness and self-denial; and this, not only without human aid, but in opposition to all the power and policy of the world. They could not therefore but feel themselves unfit for such a task: but our Lord gave them a most encouraging promise. When Moses declined the service to which he was called, God promised to be with him [Note: Exo 4:15.]: thus Christ engaged to succour his Disciples in their work. He assured them of his presence to direct, assist, and uphold them; and to give effect to their labours. To this promise he called their particular attention, lo! nor will he fail to accomplish it to the end of the world. Nor was the affirmation added to it without, peculiar energy. Amen may be considered as an affirmation or a petition: in either view it should not be overlooked. The promise it confirms, was the solace of all the Apostles; and has been the support of all succeeding pastors. Let every one then add Amen, as importing both his wish and affiance.]
Let us now mark,
III.
The bearing which this commission has on us at the present day
The Apostles were inspired of God to declare what no uninspired man could know; and were empowered by God to work miracles in confirmation of their word. In these respects ministers of the present day cannot for a moment be considered as on a par with them. But, so far as regards the message which we are to deliver,
We have the very same commission with them
[The Lord Jesus Christ has had, in uninterrupted succession, servants to make known his name to all the different generations from the apostolic age to the present day: and all who have been called by him to the work of the ministry, have had the same message to deliver [Note: 2Co 5:18-20.] In particular, we are to make known the offices of the sacred Three in the economy of redemption; setting forth the Father as the Fountain from whence it flows: (for it was from the love he bare to man that he gave us his only dear Son to save us [Note: Joh 3:16.]:) and exhibiting his Son, his co-equal, co-eternal Son, as our Mediator, through whose obedience unto death our peace with God is obtained: and setting forth the Holy Ghost as the Agent, who applies to our souls all the blessings which Christ has purchased for us. This mystery, I say, we are to unfold with all possible clearness and energy: and we must insist upon it as the only foundation of a sinners hope At the same time we must require of men to obey the commands of God, and must admit of no other standard of holiness than that which God has given us in his word
To address ourselves to this work in our own strength were folly and madness. But,]
We have also the very same encouragement as they
[The Lord Jesus Christ will be with his Church and people even to the end of the world: and every faithful minister may expect from him all needful direction and support. He will give testimony to the word of Ins grace [Note: Act 14:3.], and will clothe it with power divine, that it may effect that for which he has sent it [Note: Isa 55:11.]. However weak in itself, it shall in his hands be quick and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword [Note: Heb 4:12.]. It shall be as a hammer or a fire that breaketh the rock in pieces [Note: Jer 23:29.]. In dependence on him therefore we go forth, expecting assuredly, that, notwithstanding the weakness of those who deliver it, it shall be the power of God to the salvation of those who hear it [Note: Rom 1:16.].
Were it not for this encouragement, no man, possessed of reason, would presume to undertake the office of a minister: but depending on Christs promised aid, we do hope that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord [Note: 1Co 15:58.].] [Note: The Application of this subject must be suited to the occasion on which it is delivered. If it be an Ordination or Visitation Sermon, the Address should be adapted to ministers. If it be on a young ministers first entrance on his labours, his hearers should be respectfully told what they are to expect throughout the whole of his ministrations; and be entreated both for his sake and their own to implore the Divine presence, without which he must preach in vain, and they hear in vain. If it be to persons recently confirmed, their baptismal vows must be particularly enforced, seeing that they have been baptized into these principles, and these engagements.] END OF VOL. XI.
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. (19) Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: (20) Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
How truly gracious were the actions and words of Jesus both to the strong and weak in faith, to confirm the one, and to remove all fears from the other! All power is given unto me in heaven and in, earth. All power, as the supreme, universal, and eternal monarch of heaven and of earth. And this Jesus, as the Son of God, from his own essential nature and Godhead, possessed in common with the Father and Holy Ghost from all eternity. But the power Jesus speaks of in this place, as given unto him, is as Mediator, God-Man, the Head of his body the Church that he should give, as he elsewhere said, eternal life to as many as were given him. Joh 17:2 .
And hence he now issues his commission as the glorious Head of his body the Church, and bids them go forth to teach and baptize. And, as if to impress his whole Church, with the glorious truth that salvation is the joint gift, and flowing from the joint love and mercy, of the three Almighty persons in the Godhead, which are one; Jesus enjoins the baptism of his people in their joint name, and as dedicated to their joint service, love, adoration, and praise. And lo! saith Jesus, as finally closing his commission with an assurance of his unceasing and everlasting presence; lo! I am with you alway even unto the end of the world. Which is not meant to say that the Lord’s presence was to be with the disciples of Jesus merely to the end of their ministry, or their successors in his service; but forever in the eternal world; here in grace and hereafter in glory. His perpetual presence securing their persons, defending their cause, rendering the whole of their labors effectual here upon earth, in bringing home his Church and people, and accomplishing the whole purposes of his salvation, in all the individual instances of it, for whom the whole was ordained in the ancient settlements of eternity, and bringing them all safe home to the everlasting abodes of glory.
And by way of seal to the truth, one of the names of Christ is added, Amen. All the promises in him are yea, and in him Amen. He is the Amen: the faithful and true witness. And this is the security. That he who blesseth himself in the earth, shall bless himself in the Amen; the God of truth, and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the Amen, the God of truth. See 2Co 1:20 ; Rev 3:14 ; Isa 65:16 . See Poor Man’s Concordance, Amen.
Reader! the Lord give to you and to me grace, to mark Christ’s name on this precious Gospel. And may the Lord himself write his Amen on our hearts. Isa 51:6 ; Rev 3:12-13 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Ver. 18. All power is given to me ] Christ premiseth his power, and promiseth his presence, the better to persuade them to set upon his work, his great work of subduing the world to the obedience of the faith. Better may this King of kings say, than that king of Spain, Sol mihi semper lucet: The sun shines always for me: for he is Catholic Monarch; “the kingdoms of this world” (and of the other too) “are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever,”Rev 11:15Rev 11:15 . As for the saints, how can they be but in an all-sufficiency, since all is theirs, they being Christ’s, and Christ being God’s? What boldness may they take to go to Christ, as Jacob did to Joseph, when he understood that the sway of the whole land was in his hand, &c. See Trapp on “ Mat 11:27 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
18. . ] They appear to have first seen Him at a distance, probably on the top of the mountain. This whole introduction, . . . ., forbids us to suppose that the following words are a mere compendium of what was said on various occasions. Like the opening of ch. 5, it carries with it a direct assertion that what follows was spoken then, and there .
… ] The words are a reference to ref. Dan. (LXX), which compare. Given , by the Father, in the fulfilment of the Eternal Covenant, in the Unity of the Holy Spirit. Now first is this covenant, in its fulness, proclaimed upon earth. The Resurrection was its last seal the Ascension was the taking possession of the Inheritance. But the Inheritance is already won; and the Heir is only remaining on earth for a temporary purpose the assuring His joint-heirs of the verity of his possession. ‘All power in heaven and earth;’ see Eph 1:20-23 ; Col 2:10 ; Heb 1:6 ; Rom 14:9 ; Phi 2:9-11 :1Pe 3:22 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 28:18-20 . he final commission .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mat 28:18 . , approaching; the speech of Jesus is majestic, but His bearing is friendly, meant to set them free from doubt and fear. : this may seem a word not sufficiently dignified for the communication made. But it is often used, especially in Hebrews, in reference to divine revelations ( vide , e.g. , chap. Mat 1:1 ). , there was given to me; the aorist as in Mat 11:27 , the thought of which earlier text this utterance reiterates and amplifies. The reference may be to the resurrection, and the meaning that that event ipso facto placed Jesus in a position of power. Cf. Rom 1:4 . , every form of authority; command of all means necessary for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. : this points to session on His celestial throne at the right hand of God. Jesus speaks as one already in heaven. There is no account of the ascension in Mt. It is conceived as involved in the resurrection. : upon earth, the whole earth. The two phrases together point to a universal cosmic dominion. But so far as earth is concerned, the dominion is only a matter of right or theory, a problem to be worked out. Hence what follows.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
came = approached (as in Mat 28:9).
spake . . . Saying. “Spake” referring to the act, and “saying” referring to the substance.
power = authority. Greek. exousia. App-172.
is given = has (just, or lately) been given.
heaven. Singular. See note on Mat 6:9, Mat 6:10.
in = upon. Greek. epi.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
18. .] They appear to have first seen Him at a distance, probably on the top of the mountain. This whole introduction, . . . ., forbids us to suppose that the following words are a mere compendium of what was said on various occasions. Like the opening of ch. 5, it carries with it a direct assertion that what follows was spoken then, and there.
…] The words are a reference to ref. Dan. (LXX), which compare. Given,-by the Father, in the fulfilment of the Eternal Covenant, in the Unity of the Holy Spirit. Now first is this covenant, in its fulness, proclaimed upon earth. The Resurrection was its last seal-the Ascension was the taking possession of the Inheritance. But the Inheritance is already won; and the Heir is only remaining on earth for a temporary purpose-the assuring His joint-heirs of the verity of his possession. All power in heaven and earth; see Eph 1:20-23; Col 2:10; Heb 1:6; Rom 14:9; Php 2:9-11 :1Pe 3:22.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 28:18. , having come unto) And by that very circumstance, producing faith even in those who doubted.-, to them) i.e. addressing them.- , has been to Me) especially to Me, risen and ascending. This passage contains the sum of those things which the Lord declared afterwards more fully in the Apocalypse, concerning His possession of all authority, and His presence with His own; see Rev 1:18; Rev 1:13.-, …, all, etc.) This is the reason why Jesus sends His disciples into all the world, and why the whole world ought to worship Him, and why He institutes baptism;[1231] see Ephesians cited below.- , in heaven and on earth) see ch. Mat 9:16, Mat 16:1. Hitherto He had been on earth, now He ascends to heaven: He fills all things; see Eph 4:10, with the, preceding and following verses.
[1231] For the salvation of men, to be converted on earth, and conducted to heaven.-B. G. V.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Christs Parting Charge
And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.Mat 28:18-20.
1. In Galilee as in Jerusalem the Risen Saviour manifested Himself to the representatives of His universal Church. The brief summary of the history which St. Matthew gives calls up before our eyes a scene of singular majesty and awe. The time we are not told; we may conjecture that it was again a Lords Day, the day which even then was becoming hallowed as the weekly memorial of the resurrection, the birthday of the Lord into the new life, and the birthday of His people in Him. The place is the mountainthe mountain of the Beatitudes, or the mountain where once He had fed the crowds. The occasion differs from all those which had gone before. At other times He had appeared at most to a handful of His followers. Now, if we may interpret the hint of the Evangelist by the statement of St. Paul, there were with the Eleven five hundred of the brethren. At other times He had come suddenly and unexpectedly. Now the place is of His appointment, the meeting of the disciples by His command. It is, to use a phrase of the Epistles, the first Christian Ecclesiathe conscious gathering of those who belong to Him into His presence as the one centre and secret of their common life. He comes not suddenly, as before, but as a looked for friend approaching from the distance.
When the Eleven saw Him, they, assured now of His resurrection, worshipped him. But the othersthe greater part, it may be, of the waiting multitude, who as yet had not themselves seenthe others doubted. They had expected, we may conjecture, to behold clear tokens of unearthly majesty, signs which should have compelled belief; and lo, it was the same Jesus whom they had loved and followed in earlier days who was now drawing nigh. The others doubted. They had all obeyed their Masters call; they were all true to the instincts of sacred fellowship. But they had not all attained to the same measure of faith. They could not all bear the test of a spiritual crisis. They could not all at once give the Lord the glad welcome of an unquestioning worship. The fact of their doubt is recorded, but the Evangelist does not stay to give the details of the sequel. Doubtless he would have us understand that to them, as to the Eleven, Christ spoke; that on them, as on the Eleven, Christ laid the burden of His great commission; and that as they listened to His voice, as they learned something of the work which was to be the portion of His followers, their misgivings probably did not find a precise and logical answer, but melted away in the enthusiasm of service.
2. The text may well fascinate the theologian, for it has something to say about the nature of God. It throws some light on the Person of Christ, and is a part of the very significant testimony which He bears to Himself. The text may also engage the thoughts of the ecclesiastic, for it has suggestions to make as to the ministry of the Church and the conditions of admission to the membership of the Church. But the text is of supreme interest to the missionary, because it is the charter of his enterprise, and sets forth four things concerning the enterprise to guide his work, test his success, quicken his conscience, support his faith, feed his courage and enthusiasmits aim, its field, its obligation, and its encouragement. The aim of missionary enterprise is to make disciples of Christ, receive them into the fellowship of His Church, and teach them His will and train them in His grace. The field of missionary enterprise is the world as represented by all the nations; the obligation of missionary enterprise rests on the final command of Him who wields all authority in heaven and on earth, and has the right to command; the encouragement to missionary enterprise is the Presence in all the days of the risen Christ who commands all the means necessary for the establishment of the Kingdom of God.
This great utterance of our Lord falls into three parts:
I.A Great ClaimAll authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth.
II.A Great CommissionGo ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations.
III.A Great AssuranceLo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.
I
The Claim
All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth.
1. In these words Jesus, standing on the resurrection side of His grave, in the simplest language made the sublimest claim when He thus declared Himself to be King by Divine right, and therefore absolute in His Kingship. The word admits of no qualification. The claim admits of no limitation. In that moment He claimed authority in the material, mental, and moral realms. The application of His claim to this world does by no means exhaust it. He swept the compass with a reach far wider, more spacious, and stupendous. Not only on earth but in heaven is authority given to Him. The one phrase, in heaven and on earth, includes the whole creation of God. It is manifest that He is excluded who created, and who puts all things under the feet of His King. It is equally manifest that all is included which comes within the scope of that comprehensive word, the creation of God. We may interpret this final claim of Jesus by the prayer He taught His disciples: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Having completed His ministry of teaching; having accomplished His exodus and resurrection, at last He claimed authority in heaven and on earth, thus assuming the throne of empire over the whole creation of God, included in the terms of the prayer, and now defined in the words, as in heaven, so on earth.
Who is it that dares thus confidently to make this amazing claim? Who is it that utters it as if it were a simple matter of fact about which there was no question? Not merely power or might (), such as a great conqueror might claim, but authority (), as something which is His by right, conferred upon Him by One who has the right to bestow it (Rev 2:27). And all authority, embracing everything over which rule and dominion can be exercised; and that not only upon earth, which would be an authority overwhelming in its extensiveness, but also in heaven. Human thought loses itself in the attempt to understand what must be comprehended in such authority as this. Nothing less than the Divine government of the whole universe and of the Kingdom of Heaven has been given to the Risen Lord. In more than one Epistle, St. Paul piles up term upon term in order to try to express the honour and glory and power which the Father has bestowed upon the Son whom He has raised from the dead. The glorified Christ is above every principality and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come (Eph 1:21; comp. Col 1:16-21; Php 2:9-11). Nevertheless, with all his fulness of language, the Apostle does not get beyond, for it is impossible to get beyond, the majestic, inexhaustible reach of the simple statement which Christ, with such serenity, makes here.1 [Note: A. Plummer.]
2. The words hath been given point to a definite time when this all-embracing authority was conferred. When was it given? Let another portion of Scripture answer the questionDeclared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Then to the Man Jesus was given authority over heaven and earth. All the early Christian documents concur in this view of the connexion between the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and His investiture with this sovereign power. Listen to Paul: Becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name. Listen to Peter: who raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory. Hear the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews: we see Jesus for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour. Hearken to John: to Him who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Look with his eyes to the vision of the Lamb as it had been slain, enthroned in the midst of the throne, and say whether this unanimous consent of the earliest Christian teachers is explicable on any reasonable grounds, unless there had been underlying it just the words of the text, and the Master Himself had taught them that all power was given to Him in heaven and on earth. As it seems impossible to account for the existence of the Church if we deny the resurrection, so it seems impossible to account for the faith of the earliest stratum of the Christian Church without the acceptance of some such declaration as this, as having come from the Lord Himself. And so the hands that were pierced with the nails wield the sceptre of the universe, and on the brows that were wounded and bleeding with the crown of thorns are wreathed the many crowns of universal Kinghood.
The resurrection of Christ marked the acceptance of His work by the Father, and revealed the triumph in which that work ended. Death and all the power of the enemy were overcome, and victory was attained. But the resurrection of Christ was also His emergenceHis due emergenceinto the power and blessedness of victorious life. In the Person of Christ life in God, and unto God, had descended into the hard conditions set for Him who would associate a world of sinners to Himself. In the resurrection the triumph of that enterprise came to light. Now, done with sin, and free from death, and asserting His superiority to all humiliation and all conflict, He rose in the fulness of a power which He was entitled also to communicate. He rose, with full right and power to save. And so His resurrection denotes Christ as able to inspire life, and to make it victorious in His members.1 [Note: R. Rainy, Epistle to the Philippians, 239.]
3. This claim means the success of His life purpose. He had told His disciples that He would build His Church; that He would lead it as an army in conflict against evil and its issues, and in victory over all, including the very gates of Hades; that He would erect a moral standard, and make them, His disciples, His interpreters thereof, giving them the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Immediately following this declaration of purpose, He had spoken to them of the necessity for the cross, and they, with faith faltering, had seen Him die. Notwithstanding all He had foretold them, they looked upon the cross as evidence of His failure to accomplish His purposes. From their standpoint of observation, it was impossible for one who died to build a Church, and lead an army, and insist upon a moral standard. But now they saw Him in all the glory of resurrection life, and knew that therein He demonstrated His power to build a Church, having passed through death and become the firstborn from among the dead. They knew that He had the power to combat sin and overcome it, for He had taken hold of death, which is the ultimate of sin, and in His mastery of death had revealed His ability to deal with sin. He had lived in perfect conformity with His own ethical standard, and when His life resulted in His rejection by men and His being put to death, it had seemed as though the impossibility of obedience was proved; but now, standing in the power of risen life, He claimed authority, and thereby suggested that His own victories vindicated His right to be the ethical Teacher of the world.
4. But in this claim we have not merely the attestation of the completeness of Christs work, we have also the elevation of Manhood to enthronement with Divinity. For the new thing that came to Jesus after His resurrection was that His humanity was taken into, and became participant of, the glory which I had with thee, before the world was. Then our nature, when perfect and sinless, is so cognate and kindred with the Divine that humanity is capable of being invested with, and of bearing, that exceeding and eternal weight of glory. In that elevation of the Man Christ Jesus, we may read a prophecy, which shall not be unfulfilled, of the destiny of all those who conform to Him through faith, love and obedience, finally to sit down with Him on His throne, even as He is set down with the Father on His throne.
No system thinks so condemnatorily of human nature as it is, none thinks so glowingly of human nature as it may become, as does the religion of the cross. There are bass notes far down beyond the limits of the scale to which ears dulled by the world and sin and sorrow are sensitive; and there are clear, high tones, thrilling and shrilling far above the range of perception of such ears. The man that is in the lowest depths may rise with Jesus to the highest, but it must be by the same road by which the Master went. If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him, and only if. There is no other path to the throne but the cross. Via crucis, via lucisthe way of the cross is the way of light. It is to those who have accepted their Gethsemanes and their Calvarys that He appoints a kingdom, as His Father has appointed unto Him.1 [Note: A. Maclaren.]
II
The Commission
Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations.
The all-ruling Christ calls for the universal proclamation of His sovereignty by His disciples. He craves no empty rule, no mere elevation by virtue of Divine supremacy, over men. He regards that elevation as incomplete without the voluntary surrender of men to become His subjects and champions. Without its own consent He does not count that His universal power is established in a human heart. Though that dominion be all-embracing like the ocean, and stretching into all corners of the universe, and dominating over all the ages, yet in that ocean there may stand up black and dry rocks, barren as they are dry, and blasted as they are black, because, with the awful power of a human will, men have said, We will not have this man to reign over us. It is willing subjects that Christ seeks, in order to make the Divine grant of authority a reality.
This command must appear, when we consider it, to be simply astonishing. Here is, as it seems, a Jewish peasant, surrounded by a small company of uneducated followers, bidding them address themselves in His name to races, ancient, powerful, refined; to win their intellectual and moral submission to doctrines and precepts propounded by Himself. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations. The only idea of empire of which the world knew was the empire of material force. Wherever the legions of Rome had penetrated, there followed the judge and the tax-collector: and the nations submitted to what they could not resist, until at length their masters became too weak to control or to protect them. As for an empire of souls, the notion was unheard of. No philosopher could found it, since a philosophers usual occupation consisted mainly in making intellectual war upon his predecessors or contemporaries. No existing religion could aim at it, since the existing religions were believed to be merely the products of national instincts and aspirations; each religion was part of the furniture of a nation, or at most of a race. Celsus, looking out on Christianity in the second century of our era, with the feelings of Gibbon or of Voltaire, said that a man must be out of his mind to think that Greeks and Barbarians, Romans and Scythians, bondmen and freemen, could ever have one religion. Nevertheless this was the purpose of our Lord. The Apostles were bidden to go and make disciples of all the nations. Yes; all the nations. There was no nation in such religious circumstances, none so cultivated, none so degraded, as to be able to dispense with the teaching and healing power of Jesus Christ, or to be beyond the reach of His salvation.1 [Note: H. P. Liddon, Easter in St. Pauls, 398.]
1. The great aim of the missionary is to make disciples. No doubt he is a civilizer, but he does not go to heathen lands in the interests of civilization; he goes to proclaim salvation by grace. He is the friend of commerce, education, freedom of every kind, and rapidly promotes them wherever he goes; but he does not go to China, India, and the islands of the South Seas in order to circulate Western ideas of trade, culture, good government, and social weal; he goes to represent the character, announce the will, illustrate the grace, offer the salvation, and promote the reign of the God whom Christ has made real and saving to us. And whatever improvements he may help to make in the outward conditions in which the people live, he has not fulfilled his distinctive mission until he has given them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and won them to a trust in and love of God that will free them from their idolatries, cleanse them from their immoralities, and make them worshippers with intelligent conviction, zeal and courage in their devotion. Indeed to give them Western civilization without Western religion, with its powerful ethic to illumine and discipline their conscience, would be to multiply their power of sin and mischief and tend to their corruption. To give China, with her vast population and material resources, the civilization of Europe and America without the Christ who is its light and salt would be to make her the menace of the world, and to create a yellow peril indeed.
I was hearing the other day the testimony of a Coptic judge in Egypt as to how the very idea of justice had for the first time dawned upon the fellah in Egypt when he saw that he, poor man, was going to get his Nile water, a thing hitherto inconceivable, equally with his rich neighbour. We bring justice, and yet even the justice of administration, glorious as that gift is, does not get to the inner heart and conscience of men. It does not give them the peace to live by in their private life; it does not create character; it does not get to the conscience or the heart.1 [Note: Bishop Gore.]
2. Baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Baptism, it has been well said, is the oldest ceremonial ordinance that Christianity possesses; it is the only one which is inherited from Judaism. Immersion of the body in water is naturally symbolical and suggestive of purification; so, in the sacrament of Baptism, the one essential of entrance into the Kingdom of God is visibly set forth. It is a Kingdom into which nothing unclean can enter, yet in Baptism the right of every man to inherit the Kingdom is declared, and the condition of admission revealed. Baptism, therefore, is the token of a universal Church; it is not the symbol of a sect, or the badge of a party; it is a visible witness to the world of a common humanity united in God.
Dr. Moritz Busch, the Boswell of Prince Bismarck, relates this story. It happened some time ago that King Frederick of Denmark conferred upon the great German Chancellor the Grand Cross of the Danebrog Order. One of the rules of that order is that every one who receives the decoration of its cross must set up his name and arms in the principal church at Copenhagen, with a motto which must be chosen by himself, and must bear a double or ambiguous meaning. So I hit upon this motto, said Prince Bismarck, In Trinitate robur, alluding to the trefoil, the clover, which was the old device of our family. And what was the other meaning? said Dr. Busch. Was it, My strength is in the Triune God? And the answer was given with a solemn gravity Yes, just so; that is exactly what I meant.2 [Note: J. E. C. Welldon, The Fire upon the Altar, 59.]
3. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you. Those who come under the influence of the proclamation of the Lordship of Jesus, and, yielding to it, pass through His death and resurrection into living union with Him, are to be taught to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you. They are to realize in their own fellowship the actuality of His Kingship, and are to manifest through their corporate life the glory and grace of the Kingdom of God. This new society is formed wherever, as a result of the proclamation of His Lordship, men and women yield thereto; a society of those who not only believe in His Lordship, but bend to it, and exhibit to the world the result of His Kingship in their individual lives and social fellowship. We hear a great deal in these days about the worthlessness of mere dogmatic Christianity. Jesus Christ anticipated all that talk, and guarded it from exaggeration. For what He tells us here that we are to train ourselves and others in is not creed but conduct; not things to be believed or credenda, but things to be done or agendateaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you. A creed that is not wrought out in actions is empty; conduct that is not informed, penetrated, regulated by creed is unworthy of a man, not to say of a Christian. What we are to know we are to know in order that we may do, and so inherit the benediction, which is never bestowed upon them that know, but upon them that, knowing these things, are blessed in, as well as for, the doing of them.
Surely, if there be anything with which metaphysics have nothing to do, and where a plain man, without skill to walk in the arduous paths of abstruse reasoning, may yet find himself at home, it is religion. For the object of religion is conduct; and conduct is really, however men may overlay it with philosophical disquisitions, the simplest thing in the world. That is to say, it is the simplest thing in the world as far a understanding is concerned; as regards doing, it is the hardest thing in the world. Here is the difficulty, to do what we very well know ought to be done; and instead of facing this, men have searched out another with which they occupy themselves by preferencethe origin of what is called the moral sense, the genesis and physiology of conscience, and so on. No one denies that here, too, is difficulty, or that the difficulty is a proper object for the human faculties to be exercised upon; but the difficulty here is speculative. It is not the difficulty of religion, which is a practical one; and it often tends to divert attention from this. Yet surely the difficulty of religion is great enough by itself, if men would but consider it, to satisfy the most voracious appetite for difficulties. It extends to rightness in the whole range of what we call conduct; in three-fourths, therefore, at the very lowest computation, of human life. The only doubt is whether we ought not to make the range of conduct wider still, and to say it is four-fifths of human life, or five-sixths. But it is better to be under the mark than over it; so let us be content with reckoning conduct as three-fourths of human life.1 [Note: Matthew Arnold, Literature and Dogma, chap. i.]
III
The Assurance
Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.
There are four ways in which this verse has been regarded. Some say that the words are fiction: that they were never spoken by the Lord; that they were born in another mans mind; that they have no vital relationship with the thought and purpose of Jesus, and therefore we should employ a penknife and cut them out. The second statement made concerning them is that the report is accurate, but the claim presumptuous. We are told that, like all other great leaders of men, the Nazarene had moments of unillumined ecstasy. There were times when, like Mohammed, like Luther, like John Wesley, He lost the true perspective and purpose of things. Or, to put it more plainly, these are the words of a fanatic, and due allowance must be made for exaggeration. Then there is a third way. The words were certainly spoken, but they were never intended to be taken literally. They are symbolic and figurative, and we must beware not to spoil them by getting away from the symbolism. We must exercise the imagination and interpret them upon the purely human plane. The fourth way is this: that the words are simply, naturally, literally and gloriously true; that the Master said them; that He meant just what He said, that HeJesus the Christ, a personal, conscious, intelligent presenceis for ever abiding with His disciples, sharing all the difficulties of the pilgrim road, participating in their triumphs right away to the end of the world. That is the witness, the overwhelming witness, of the Christian Church.
1. What then do the words signify? First of all, they promise a personal presence. The assurance of Jehovahs presencecertainly I will be with theeis repeated ever and again in the histories and oracles of the Old Testament. To Jacob, to Moses, to Joshua, to the Judges, to Jeremiah, to Israel in the land of exile it was vouchsafed as the seal of pardon or as the pledge of guidance and of needed strength. But the promise then must have seemed vague and uncertain. Jehovah was far away, unseen, an awful Judge and King. The Incarnation transfigures mans whole conception of Gods nearness to him. Christ speaks as Friend to friend, loving and loved. The promise is Divine as of old, but now it is human also. The Speaker we know has had His part in flesh and blood, in toils and temptations, in life and death.
George Eliot said that the Lord Jesus, when He was upon earth, gave a sort of impulse to the race, and that impulse remains to our own day and, therefore, He lives. It is something like an engine, shunting on the railway. The engine gives the train a sudden impact and then stops. And the trucks continue on the strength of the impact given, while the engine remains dead. And, says George Eliot, and all who believe in her teaching, it is perfectly true that He is with us now in a dumb, vague, blessed impulse. Is that your Jesus? If I may recall my illustration of the train, I will tell you of my Jesus. When the Lord came and put Himself on the train He went with it, and He is with it now. I am with you, not merely as some dumb, contributory impulse, a dying dynamic; I am with you a living presence, conscious, intelligent, knowing you and offering the powers of the Infinite to save you and to complete the plan of your life, and lift you into a life of holiness with God.1 [Note: 1 J. H. Jowett.]
2. It is an abiding presence: I am with you alway. The Lord, using the simple idiom of His native tongue, says all the days. The pledge is precise and detailed. It goes hand in hand with the Church into all the vicissitudes of her long and perilous journey. It has never been withdrawn or modified. The history of the Christian centuries is the record of its fulfilment. It is ours to-daythis critical day of the Churchs lifeto make us courageous in face of difficulty and calm in the midst of controversy. That word alway separates Him from every other teacher the world has ever seen. If you want to know how infinite is the separation, take down the biographies of some of the superlatively great leaders of the human race. Listen to their last words, and when you have their message in your ears come back to this, and you will feel that you are in another world. Take that great book of Plato in which he describes the last few moments when Socrates is leaving his disciples. It is a beautiful picture, tragic, pathetic, winsome. But you never find Socrates even whispering that when he has left his disciples he will remain with them, a personal attendant spirit among them. Take the Apostle Paul himselfnext to the Lord, perhaps, the greatest man among menand read his Second Epistle to Timothy, where you get his almost farewell word: I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforthI will remain with you? Not a suggestion of it. The great men of our race do not come within an infinite distance of suggesting that they will remain among their disciples. This makes the Lord unique: Lo, I am with you alway.
Charles Lamb said that he sat at his desk in the East India House till the wood had entered his soul, so wooden were his duties. When I think of this I think there is nothing that cannot become monotonous, and again I think of one of the greatest souls that God ever made, pacing the fringe of the Sinaitic desert for forty years, the companion of sheep, a solitary soul; and for forty years more leading about and about, a march without a goal, a people more stupid than the sheep, and I read he endured. How? Through Divine companionship. The Lord spoke with Moses face to face. Then all monotony went. He endured as seeing him who is invisible. And I think of a greater than Mosesthe greatest of allliving for thirty years in the monotonous routine of an Oriental village, a peasants cottage, and a carpenters shop, and I say, He knows monotony, and He is with me on the dull bit of road. He may be the companion, and blessed be drudgery if He be near and I may feel the warmth of His love.1 [Note: C. Brown, The Message of God, 54.]
Look into any life which has been shaped and fashioned by living faith in Jesus, and you will see this promise fulfilled.
Where the many toil and suffer,
There am I among Mine own;
Where the tired workman sleepeth,
There am I with him alone.
Never more thou needest seek Me,
I am with thee everywhere:
Raise the stone, and thou shalt find Me;
Cleave the wood, and I am there.
3. It is a victorious presence. The phrase the end of the world may be better rendered the consummation of the age. The ultimate victory of the King is implied. There was no fear of failure in the heart of the King. The age initiated by His first advent will be consummated at His second; and through all the toil He abides with His people, leading them in perpetual triumph as they abide in fellowship with Him.
One of the most frequently quoted of the promises of Christ he held to be largely a conditional promise. As he interpreted it, Lo, I am with you alway, following as it did the great commission, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, left the impression that, failing the fulfilment of the commission, the promise was largely invalidated. On the other hand, he found a deep and perennial conviction, born of his experiences in the dangers and difficulties of his missionary career, that all men and women (and all Churches) that obediently carry out the command have still the Promise of Omnipotencethe Everlasting Wordof the Abiding Presence of the Son of God.1 [Note: John G. Paton: Later Years, 35.]
When John Wesley had done his work and was even now passing within the veil, we are told that, gathering up what strength remained to him, he cried out, The best of all is, God is with us. He had put Christs promise to the test, as few have done; and he had found it true. Christs presence is for all the days of the Churchs history, for each hour of the day of every Christian mans lifethe light of lifes solemn evening, but no less surely the strength of lifes strenuous noon, and the joy of lifes bright morning. The best of all is, God, God in Christ, is with us.2 [Note: Bishop Chase, in The Cambridge Review, xx. p. xciii.]
I was reading the other day that glorious book of Charles Kingsleys, entitled, Yeast. You remember how Nevarga, dirty, habit-stained, morally and spiritually broken, feeling utterly defiled, kneels away in the desert by a furze bush, and lifts up his heart to God and cries, Then I rose up like a man and I spoke right out into the dumb, black air, and I said, If Thou wilt be my God, if Thou wilt be on my side, good Lord who died for me, I will be Thine, villain as I am, if Thou canst make anything of me. And Charles Kingsley says the furze bush began to glow with sacred flame, and there in the desert the Lord Jesus found a new companion and made a new friend.1 [Note: J. H. Jowett.]
Christs Parting Charge
Literature
Broughton (L. G.), Table Talks of Jesus, 96.
Brown (C.), The Message of God, 46.
Brown (H. D.), Christs Divinity School, 68.
Campbell (R. J.), New Theology Sermons, 50.
Cross (J.), Old Wine and New, 185.
Dyke (H. van), The Open Door, 85.
Fremantle (W. H.), The Gospel of the Secular Life, 91.
Greenhough (J. G.), Christian Festivals and Anniversaries, 123.
Ingram (A. F. W.), The Gospel in Action, 45.
John (Griffith), A Voice from China, 38.
Liddon (H. P.), Easter in St. Pauls, 393.
Morgan (G. C.), The Missionary Manifesto, 29.
Moule (H. C. G.), Christs Witness to the Life to Come, 135.
Newman (C. E.), The Bible in the Pulpit, 225.
Simpson (J. G.), Christian Ideals, 309.
Smellie (A.), In the Secret Place, 3.
Stubbs (C. W.), Christus Imperator, 18.
Terry (G. F.), The Old Theology in the New Age, 119.
Vaughan (C. J.), University Sermons, 233.
Virgin (S. H.), Spiritual Sanity, 47.
Welldon (J. E. C.), The Fire upon the Altar, 54.
Cambridge Review, xx., Supplement No. 510 (F. H. Chase).
Christian World Pulpit, viii. 100 (H. W. Beecher); xliii. 300 (R. Rainy); lv. 248 (C. Gore); lxviii. 67 (J. Foster); lxxi. 309 (C. Brown).
Churchmans Pulpit: Pt. 82, Mission Work, 183 (W. Leitch).
Record of Christian Work, xxxii. (1913) 439 (J. H. Jowett).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
All: Mat 11:27, Mat 16:28, Psa 2:6-9, Psa 89:19, Psa 89:27, Psa 110:1-3, Isa 9:6, Isa 9:7, Dan 7:14, Luk 1:32, Luk 1:33, Luk 10:22, Joh 3:35, Joh 5:22-27, Joh 13:3, Joh 17:2, Act 2:36, Act 10:36, Rom 14:9, 1Co 15:27, Eph 1:20-22, Phi 2:9-11, Col 1:16-19, Heb 1:2, Heb 2:8, 1Pe 3:22, Rev 11:15, Rev 17:14, Rev 19:16
Reciprocal: Gen 25:5 – General Gen 41:41 – General Num 24:19 – Of Jacob 1Sa 2:10 – he shall 1Ch 22:6 – charged him 1Ch 29:12 – power Job 25:2 – Dominion Psa 8:6 – madest Psa 21:5 – honour Psa 47:2 – a great Psa 62:11 – power Psa 66:7 – ruleth Psa 110:2 – the rod Psa 132:18 – but upon Psa 135:6 – Whatsoever Psa 145:12 – make known Pro 8:15 – By Pro 15:7 – lips Isa 22:24 – hang Isa 26:4 – in the Isa 40:10 – his arm Isa 49:5 – yet Isa 51:5 – my salvation Isa 52:7 – Thy God Isa 52:13 – he shall Isa 55:4 – a leader Eze 1:26 – over Eze 21:27 – until Eze 34:24 – a prince Dan 2:44 – set up Mic 5:2 – that is Mat 2:6 – a Governor Mat 7:29 – having Mat 10:1 – he gave Mat 13:38 – field Mat 24:31 – he Mar 13:10 – General Mar 16:19 – after Luk 2:10 – to Luk 5:24 – power Luk 19:12 – to Joh 3:31 – is above Joh 11:22 – God will give it thee Joh 15:16 – ordained Joh 16:15 – General Joh 20:21 – as Act 2:33 – by Act 3:13 – hath Act 5:31 – hath Rom 10:15 – And how Rom 15:18 – to make 1Co 5:4 – when 1Co 8:6 – and one 1Co 11:3 – and the head of Christ 1Co 15:24 – the kingdom 2Co 12:9 – the power Gal 1:1 – and Eph 1:21 – in that Phi 2:10 – every Phi 3:21 – the working Col 1:18 – in all 1Pe 1:21 – gave 2Pe 1:3 – his 2Pe 1:16 – the power Rev 1:5 – and the prince Rev 3:21 – and am Rev 5:12 – to receive Rev 6:2 – and a Rev 10:2 – he set Rev 12:10 – the power Rev 19:12 – on his
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE LAST COMMAND
All power go ye all nations.
Mat 28:18-19
Here we have (1) The Command and (2) The Reason for it. Let the command be obeyed in remembrance of
I. The sender.
II. The promised power.
III. All that the missionary commission means to the heathen.
IV. What that commission means to the organised Church.
V. The Great Day of Account.
Illustration
The Rev. W. Carey, of Dacca City, writes: And Jesus went about all the cities, and the villages, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. And the villagesthat was the word that rang in our ears. How many villages would there be in this one district of Dacca? We looked at the map, unrolled it, and spread it on the table. It was just a black mass of names, and every name a village. Had these villages been visited with the Gospel? We put the map in the pulpit, and there were great searchings of heart under the sermons it preached. The Church took up the matter, and prayed and planned, and planned and prayed, till something definite was done. A letter was written, and printed, and addressed to the principal men in all the villages of a certain section of the district. It was a call to repentance and the fear of God, and it was followed by a band of preachers who spent a month going from village to village with the life-giving message of the Cross. They were well received. They sent in glowing reports as they went along, and the Church sustained them with prayer. It was a new experience and a new joy. They went in the faith that God had prepared hearts in every place, and so it fell out. They visited twenty-two villages, and preached to 2900 people, most of whom had never heard the way of salvation before. But if they continue the tour, spending one day only in each village, and working all through the year, it will take them fourteen years to complete the task,
(SECOND OUTLINE)
THE EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF MISSIONS
The Christian man, anxious to be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in him, ought not to overlook the evidential value of foreign missions.
I. Consider the commission given by Christ to His Church as impossible on the theories that (a) the Apostles were fraudulent persons; or (b) were the victims of hallucination. Persons consciously engaged in a fraud would surely devise some commission which was within the range of obvious possibility, perhaps attainable within their own lives. Their plans would be comparatively modest. There would be nothing to alarm the timid or invite criticism. Persons who were the subjects of hallucination would certainly be affected by the nature of the commission given to them. They would speedily be restored to their senses by the conflict with what seemed the impossible. Their hallucination would hardly survive torture or other experiences which fell to the lot of the Christians in apostolic times.
II. Observe the nature of Christs commission.
(a) It is a message to the whole world, to Jew and Gentile, to the keenest intellects, the proudest philosophy, and the highest civilisation then known, and to the deepest ignorance, the cruellest barbarism. What a task for the exponents of fraud or the victims of hallucination!
(b) It was a message contemplating a universal brotherhood: All its members to be received by the same symbol, all to accept the same creed, all to obey the same moral law, allJew and Gentile, learned and simple, master and slaveto be brothers. How absurd as the project of fraud or hallucination! No, the task to which the infant Church set itself is in its nature one which witnesses for the truth of the message it has to set before the world.
III. The enormous difficulty of the task must not, however, be accepted as an excuse for indifference to it or for slackness in carrying it out. There must be no sayingWell, the task is so overwhelming that we may be forgiven if we take it slowly. Rather must the Church of to-day mark the example of the Apostolic Churchthe promptness, the simplicity, of its obedience to Christs command; the immensity of its sacrifices in proportion to ours; the sternness of the conditions under which it worked compared with ours.
Reflecting on these, the Church of to-day should address itself with new energy to the task of carrying out its Masters command. Its zeal in so doing supplies one measure of its belief in Him as its own Saviour.
(THIRD OUTLINE)
AUTHORITY, COMMISSION, AND SUPPORT
The apostles are sent with (1) authority, (2) a complete commission, (3) the assurance of Divine support.
I. The authority ends all doubt as to whether missionary work should be undertaken.
II. The commission fits out the worker with a clear conception of his duty(a) to preach Christ, (b) to offer a covenant, (c) to unfold a code of conduct.
III. The assurance of Divine support meets the necessities both of sorely tried evangelists and pastors in the mission-field, and of the waiting Church at home, also tried, though in other ways, in regard to this work.
Illustration
Of another man, Khaleel, and his wife, the Rev. W. H. T. Gairdner, of the Egypt and London Mission of the C.M.S., says:He had been to the Azhar as a youth. Six years he learned the Koran by heart, and six years more he studied in the Azhar. Yet when he left, at the age of about eighteen, he found that he had no satisfaction, no satisfying idea or knowledge of God. He tried complete agnosticism for four years; that did not satisfy either. Then, and not till then, did it occur to him to try the utterly despised Nazarene religion: a desperate resort! He got hold of the Bible, and, Egyptian-like, began at the first page. At the end of Genesis 1 he said to himself, Very good! Then slowly, but apparently very surely, he went solemnly through the whole Old Testament. It took him years! The end of that stage was that he developed into a sort of Unitarian, but with a great love for all manner of Christian fellowship. Finally, fuller reflection convinced him of the full Apostolic faith, and I have not yet met an Egyptian with a clearer grip of that faith. He has a perfectly Ignatian desire for martyrdom, which he quite believes will fall to him, and I once heard him earnestly addressing his wife (squatting in front of him) in these terms: Now then, woman, when I am gone you just remember one thingJesus is alive and Mohammed dead. What have you to do with a dead man? The woman nods sagely, and for the hundredth time gets her mind round the fact that Jesus is alive and Mohammed dead. I have heard quite independently that when the Mohammedan women came around, having heard that she was going to be baptized, and heckled her as to her reasons, she replied with but the one statement, Jesus is alive and Mohammed dead; how can a dead man save? When they came for baptism they made their answers in a loud voice, first Khaleel, then the wife, then the godparents for the childrenin succession answering each question. Then Khaleel entered the water and was baptized with great joy. Then Rifka (Rebekah), with prodigious self-possession, entered the water. So keen was she that she gasped out, And of the Holy Ghost, as she emerged and heard the last words of the solemn sentence. So she also went up out of the water. Then came the children.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Christ’s Missionary Command as Seen in the Early Church
Mat 28:18-20; Mar 16:15-20; Luk 24:45-49
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
As the time came for the Lord to leave, and to return to His Father, He pressed upon the disciples the great yearning’s of His soul toward a world lost in sin; and then gave command that the Gospel should be preached to all the world. Let us, for a moment, as introductory to what shall follow, study the three records where this last command was given.
1. The command as recorded by Matthew: Here three things were stressed. First, they were to go and make disciples; secondly, they were to go and baptize; and thirdly, they were to go and preach.
(1) They were to go and make disciples. Their field was to be all nations. Their objective was to be the creation of followers of the Lord.
It is not enough for missionary endeavors to be centered in the moral uplift of the people. The Church is not commissioned to teach the nations of the world how to dress, or how to farm, or how to manufacture. The mission of the Church toward the unevangelized, is not to proclaim sanitation, and the isolation of diseases. The purpose of going into the world is primarily to preach Christ as the Saviour of sinners, and to call upon all men everywhere to repent, to believe, and to follow Him.
(2) They were to go and baptize. Baptism was to be not only a symbolical ordinance, but it was to be a consecrated ordinance. It was to be the signet of a new life. It was to be the attest of discipleship, the sign that the one discipled had been called out of the world to walk in newness of life.
(3) They were to go and teach. They were to teach all things which Christ had commanded them. They were not told to teach spelling, and geography, and grammar, and reading, and writing. They were to teach the things which pertained to the Kingdom of God. They were to teach the present ministry of Christ at the Father’s right hand, the place and power of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life; the Second Coming of Christ, and His glorious reign.
2. The command, as recorded in Mark. In Mark, the command emphasized the preaching of the Gospel to every creature. Not one individual in the wide world was to be left in ignorance of Christ, and of the salvation which is in Him. Until each generation preaches the Gospel to every individual living during their day, they have not fulfilled this commission.
3. The command as recorded in Luke. Luke emphasizes that which is to be preached. He wrote “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in [Christ’s] Name among all nations.” He said “Ye are witness of these things.” In the Book of Acts, just before Christ went up, He gave the geographical order in which His commission was to be proclaimed. He said, “Ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
We are glad that we are to spend the while, today, in observing how the early Church moved out in the fulfillment of this thrice-stated commission,-a commission restated in Act 1:8. We trust that the purpose of God toward a lost world, as they were put into operation in the first century, will inspire the saints of the twentieth century to a deeper realization of their own world-wide task.
“Telling sinners of the Saviour,
Let the light spread more and more.
Tell the whole wide world of Jesus,
Bear the news from shore to shore;
While we pray for other nations,
Send them help with willing hand;
Let us not forget the home-fields-
Jesus, for our native land!”
I. THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS AS SEEN AT PENTECOST (Act 2:5)
Was it not remarkable that, when the Holy Ghost came, there were at that time dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under Heaven. This fact alone is sufficient proof that the heart of God was reaching out toward men of every nation.
When the Holy Ghost came, and the saints were all filled with the Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, then, the multitude came together. The people were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language. Those who spoke were Galileans; those who heard were Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontius, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians.
You may wonder why we quote these varied nationalities by name. It is because their presence demonstrates to a conclusion, God’s great missionary purpose and desire. The people were in doubt, saying one to another, “What meaneth this?” We know one thing that it meant. It meant that God was reaching out His hand to a lost world. In one day and in one locality, God, through His disciples, was preaching the Gospel to every nation under Heaven.
From the groups who heard, about 3,000 were saved, and baptized. It is not difficult for anyone to grasp the far-reach of that day’s work. Did not many of these people return to their own land as messengers of Christ?
We remember how Peter addressed his first Epistle to the strangers scattered throughout Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. We feel certain that these “elect strangers” were, for a large part, those saved at Pentecost, or saved through the ministry of those of their nation, who were saved at Pentecost. Thank God for this first vision of missions in the early Church!
“Send the Light, oh, send it quickly
Far across the heaving main;
Speed the news of full salvation
Through a dear Redeemer’s Name.
Send the Light, where souls are dying
In their darkness, gloom and night;
Haste, oh, haste! the days are fleeting,
And the hours-how swift their flight!
Send the Light-the Lord commands it;
To His Holy Word attend:
Go ye forth and preach My Gospel;
Lo! I’m with you to the end.”
II. THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS AS SEEN IN THE GREAT PERSECUTION (Act 8:1)
God had commanded the Apostles that they should go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. Christ had told them they were to tarry in Jerusalem only until, but not after, the Holy Ghost came. He specified that their testimony was to pass from Jerusalem, on to Judea, and then to Samaria and then to the uttermost part of the earth. The early Church, at the first, failed God in this matter. They stayed in Jerusalem, They clung to their home base. The result was, that something startling had to happen.
As we see the great persecution against the Church at Jerusalem, we behold the saints scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. Thus, the second and the third reach of Christ’s command was about to be fulfilled.
We can see that the persecution itself was permitted on God’s part, in- order to press the saints out of Jerusalem and on into Judea and Samaria.
When the Lord Jesus was preaching and the multitudes were thronging His ministry, He left them abruptly, saying to the disciples, “I must preach the Kingdom of God to other cities also.”
“The other cities also,” should be the battle-cry of every believer touched with the live coal from God’s altar. The spirit of missions is the spirit of Christ. He who would circumscribe His testimony, or his gifts, or his prayers, to the immediate locality in which he dwells, has never caught the impact of missions, as set forth in the history of the early Church.
Paul wrote of not being content with another man’s line of things made ready to his hand. We join with him in saying, that, when our faith is increased, we shall be enlarged according to Paul’s rule, abundantly, to preach the Gospel in the regions beyond.
“Send abroad the Gospel heralds,
Let them take the blessed light
Into every land of darkness,
Piercing through the shades of night.
Yes, we’ll send the joyful message
Over mountain, over wave,
Telling everywhere of Jesus,
And His mighty power to save.”
III. THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS AS SEEN IN GOD’S CALL TO PHILIP (Act 8:26)
Philip was one of the seven. He went down into the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. Great joy was caused in that city by reason of Philip’s testimony, because they believed him and what he preached concerning the Kingdom of God, and the Name of Jesus Christ. Then were they baptized both men and women.
Philip went on his way preaching the Gospel in Samaria. Then it was that the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip saying, “Arise, and go toward the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.”
This was a strange command indeed. Why should Philip be called upon to leave so prosperous a ministry, and why should he go in a way which was desert? The answer is not difficult to find. There was a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority, under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was journeying along that desert road.
But why such a stir about one lone Ethiopian? Were not the many Samaritans, of greater value than one man from Africa? Assuredly.
We must understand that the one man took precedence over the many, because he was from a land afar, and because he was a key man, through whom many who were in darkness might see the light.
In the opening verses of Act 8:1-40, the Gospel was carried to the Samaritans. These Samaritans were the third group mentioned in Christ’s parting order of command. In the case of this eunuch of Ethiopia, the Lord was pressing beyond Jerusalem, beyond Judea, beyond Samaria, and on toward the uttermost part of the earth.
We need to awaken to a vision of the Lord’s passion toward the salvation of men. He wants us to press on until the last man has heard the Word.
If the call comes for us to go, let us, like Philip, hesitate not, but press our way quickly down the road, even though the way be desert.
“We have heard the joyful sound;
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Spread the tidings all around;
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Bear the news to every land,
Climb the steeps and cross the waves;
Onward!-’tis our Lord’s command:
Jesus saves! Jesus saves I
IV. THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS AS SEEN IN PETER’S VISION (Act 10:9-11; Act 10:17-19)
Cornelius who was a centurion of the Italian band was a devout man,-one that feared God with all his house. He gave alms and prayed always. In answer to his prayer God purposed to send him a messenger. Accordingly, Cornelius saw in a vision an angel of God who told him to send to Joppa and call for Peter, that he might tell him what he should do.
On the morrow, as his servants approached Joppa, Peter was in prayer upon the housetop. As Peter prayed, he became hungry, and fell into a trance. He saw Heaven opened, and a vessel descending before him, wherein were all manner of unclean beasts, and of creeping things and of fowls. Peter heard a Voice saying, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” This, Peter refused to do. However, the Voice said, “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.”
While Peter doubted as to the meaning of the vision, the men from Cornelius stood before the gate.
Do we grasp the full intent of this occurrence? Peter was prejudiced against the Gentiles. He was failing God in passing on from Jerusalem to the uttermost part of the earth. Therefore God found it necessary to teach Peter a lesson by the great sheet let down to the earth.
We wonder if it is necessary for God to do something very unusual in order to stir us up to obey His voice and to fulfill His desire toward the lost. If God has said “Go,” we have no right to hesitate. If God loves the world, we have no right to circumscribe our love to some chosen few.
Once more we have seen the hand of God in the days of the early Church, pressing the claims of missions upon His people, and revealing unto us the fact that God so loved the world.
“Ye Christian heralds, go proclaim
Salvation through Immanuel’s Name;
To distant climes the tidings bear,
And plant the Rose of Sharon there.
He’ll shield you with a wall of fire,
With flaming zeal your heart inspire;
Bid raging winds their fury cease,
And hush the tempest into peace.
And when our labors all are o’er,
Then we shall meet to part no more,
With all the ransomed hosts to fall,
And crown our Saviour Lord of all.”
V. THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS AS SEEN IN THE CONVERSION OF SAUL (Act 9:15)
There was a young man who was a Pharisee, of the tribe of Benjamin. Concerning the Law, this young man was blameless. Concerning religion, he was a thoroughly prepared zealot, having sat at the feet of one Gamaliel. He was intent, in his passion to persecute the Church.
With the letters of authority in his pocket, Saul journeyed toward Damascus, to bring the saints bound unto Jerusalem. As he journeyed, a light from Heaven shined round about him.
We know the story of Saul’s change of heart; of how the Lord cried to him, and of how he replied, full of trembling and astonishment. We know that, when Saul arose from the earth, he saw no man for he was blind. We know of his tarrying in Damascus for three days, without sight and without eating, or drinking. We know how God sent Ananias to Saul.
But what was the meaning of all of this? The meaning is set forth in our key verse,-“He is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My Name before the Gentiles and kings and the Children of Israel.”
Once more we see the hand of God reaching out toward the lost of the earth. When we link with this verse, the memory of Paul’s three great missionary journeys, and of his final testimony in Rome, we begin to see the outworking of the purpose of God.
God is still calling the choicest of Christian youths, to bear His Name to the faraway lands where men lie in heathen darkness. Even now we can hear Him saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?”
“The Son of God goes forth to war,
A kingly crown to gain;
His Blood-red banner streams afar,
Who follows in His train?
Who best can drink his cup of woe,
Triumphant over pain;
Who patient bears his cross below,
He follows in His train.
A noble army-men and boys,
The matron and the maid-
Around the Saviour’s throne rejoice,
In robes of light arrayed.
They climbed the steep ascent of Heaven
Through peril, toil, and pain;
O God, to us may grace be given
To follow in their train.”
VI. THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS AS SEEN IN THE ANTIOCH CONFERENCE (Act 13:1-3)
That must have been a blessed occasion at Antioch when such prophets and teachers as Barnabas, and Simeon, and Lucius, and Manaen, and Saul, were gathered together ministering to the Lord and tasting. We have no doubt but some marvelous revelations of truth were being given, and the saints were being edified.
However, as they ministered, the Holy Ghost said, “Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.”
You may cry, “It was too bad to break up so glorious a Bible conference!” Yet, without hesitancy, the saints laid their hands on these two men and sent them away. The remarkable statement, in Act 13:4, is most illuminating-“So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia.”
No one who reads this account can doubt the desire of God to preach the Gospel in the untraveled districts where men have not heard of Christ.
Out on their missionary tour they started, and the Lord was with them. There is a little verse in 2Co 13:14, which reads,-“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.” These words are commonly known as the “benediction,” and they are quoted, usually, at the close of each, stated church service. What do they mean? The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, is that grace, wherein He became poor that we might be made rich. The love of God, is that love which embraced the whole world, and gave His Son. The communion of the Holy Ghost, is the perfect one-ness with the Spirit in going forth with the message of truth and salvation to all men.
Can we hear the voice of God calling us to go far hence with the words of life? Perhaps, He wants us to have the grace of Christ and become impoverished that others may be rich. Perhaps, He wants us to have the love of God, that will give our sons for a lost world. Perhaps, He wants us to go forth ourselves sent by the Spirit.
Oh, help me tell the story of Christ my Lord and King;
For of His boundless mercy my soul delights to sing.
Oh, help me tell the story of Jesus’ boundless love,
Till, with the Church triumphant, I sing His praise above!
He brought me out of bondage, He paid my debt of sin;
The door of life He opened, that I might enter in.
He left His home in glory, He laid His scepter down,
And on the Cross He suffered, that I might wear a crown.
Be this my one endeavor, to glorify His name;
The story of Redemption to all the world proclaim.”
VII. THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS AS SEEN IN THE MACEDONIAN CALL (Act 16:6-9)
When they had gone throughout Phrygia, and the region of Galatia, Paul and Silas were forbidden of the Holy Spirit to go to Asia. Then they assayed to go into Bithynia; but the Spirit suffered them not.
The Holy Ghost knows where He wants the message carried, and by whom He wants it borne. In the work of missions we must never take the bit into our own teeth. When we have some personal desire or ambition, as to the location where we would like to give our testimony, we must rejoice if we are forbidden of the Holy Ghost, and suffered not to go.
After the Spirit had hindered Paul and Silas in their purpose, there appeared a vision to Paul in the night. “There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us.”
The disciples quickly gathered that the Lord had called them to preach the Gospel to the Macedonians, and so they took sail immediately and came by a straight course until at last they reached Philippi.
The story of Paul’s ministry in Philippi, and of the imprisonment of Paul and Silas, with the subsequent conversion of the jailor, is known to us all. Truly, they saw the hand of God guiding their footsteps.
That God wants the Gospel carried to the ends of the earth, we have plainly seen. Seven different illustrations of this fact, in the life of the early Church, have been placed before us today. Is this not the present hour desire of God? Is the Spirit of God not now thrusting out men and women into the ripened harvest fields? We have one last word to say. If God calls, do not hesitate to obey. Remember there are three things you can do:
1. You can go yourself.
2. You can let go-some one dear and precious to you.
3. You can help go-those who have a special call.
Shall we not, each one, ask God what He wants us to do?
“Can we, whose souls are lighted
With wisdom from on high,
Can we to men benighted
The Lamp of Life deny?
Salvation! O salvation!
The joyful sound proclaim,
Till each remotest nation
Has learned Messiah’s Name.”
AN ILLUSTRATION
WHOSE BUSINESS IS IT?
They were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. Some years ago I was speaking in the city of Minneapolis. I noticed in the audience a young lawyer. When the meeting was over I made my way to him and said: “Are you a Christian?” “Well, sir.” he said, “I consider myself a Christian.” I said, “Are you bringing other men to Christ?” He said, “No, I am not, that is not my business; that’s your business, I am not called to da that, I am called to practice law; you are called to preach the Gospel.” I said, “If you are called to be a Christian you are called to bring other men to Christ.” He said, “I don’t believe it.” I said, “Look here,” then I opened my Bible at Act 8:4, and asked him to read, and he read, “They that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.” “Oh, yes,” he said, “but these were the apostles.” I said, “Will you be kind enough to read the first verse of the chapter?” and he read, “They were all scattered abroad… except the apostles.” He had nothing more to say. What could he say?-From Dr. R. A. Torrey.
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
8:18
In the Authorized Version the word “power” comes from two Greek words, with only a few exceptions, which are DUNAMIS and EXOUSIA. There is a partial blending of these words in their meaning so that they are used somewhat interchangeably, but each has its main or proper meaning. According to Thayer the first word means, “strength, ability, power; inherent power, power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature.” He defines the second word, “power of choice, liberty of doing as one pleases; leave or permission.” For convenience the first may be defined as “personal strength or ability,” the second as, “the right or privilege bestowed on one.” The word in this verse is EXOUSIA, which means that God be-stewed upon Christ full right to rule over his kingdom.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 28:18. And Jesus came to them. He may have been seen first at a distance, or He may now have approached those who doubted.
All authority was given to me in heaven and on earth. An expression of His glorification and victory. The primary reference is to His authority as Mediator, extending over all in heaven and on earth, for His Church. It was given by the Father, to Him as the God-man, though as the Eternal Word, He had such glory before the foundation of the world. Before the resurrection the disciples were not ready for this revelation, nor had the victory of the God-man been won. Hence to exalt the truths spoken by our Lord before His death above those which He uttered after His resurrection, or taught His disciples through this power, is to lose the full glory of the gospel. Our Lord now announces the fact, but this victory was won at the Resurrection. He lingers on earth to assure His chosen ones, and at the ascension enters into his Inheritance.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here, 1. A power asserted. 2. An authority delegated. 3. A command enjoined. 4. A promise subjoined.
Observe, 1. A power and authority asserted by our Saviour, as belonging to himself; All power is given unto me both in heaven and in earth.
1. In heaven; which comprehends a power of sending the Holy Ghost; a power over the angels, and all the host of heaven, and a power to dispose of heaven to all that shall believe in him.
2. In earth: which comprehends a power to gather a church out of all nations, and authority to rule, govern, and defend the same against all it enemies.
Learn hence, That all power and authority concerning the church of God, was given unto Christ and conferred upon him upon the account of his meritorious death and triumphant resurrection. All power is given unto me: that is, as Mediator; but this power was inherent in him as God from all eternity.
Observe, 2. This power delegated by Christ to his apostles; Go ye therefore and teach and baptize all nations; instructing them to observe all things whatsoever I command you.
Here is a threefold power delegated by Christ to his apostles;
1. To congregate and gather a church, a Christian church, out of all the heathen nations throughout the world. Before, he had confined them only to Israel; now, they must travel from country to country, and proselyte the heathen nations, which before had been taught of the devil, and were led away by his oracles and delusions. Go, and disciple all nations, without any distinction of country, sex, or age whatsoever, and make the gospel church as large as you can.
Thence note, That the apostles and first planters of the gospel had a commission from Christ to go amongst the pagan Gentiles, without limitation; and were not to take up their settled residence in any one nation, but to travel from country to country, instructing them in the mysteries of the gospel.
The second branch of their power was to baptize in the name of the whole Trinity; Baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Where observe, That all adult and grown persons are to be first taught and instructed, before they be baptized. But it follows not from hence, that the children of such parents may not be baptized before they are taught: for the apostles were to baptize all nations, of which children are a chief if not the chiefest part. Besides, those that were proselyted to the Jewish religion, though before they were circumcised themselves they were instructed in the law of God; yet when they were circumcised themselves, their children were not denied circumcision at eight days old. In like manner, we have no reason to deny the children of baptized parents, who are in a covenant themselves, the sign and the seal of the covenant, which is baptism. God having assured his people, that he will be the God of them, and of their seed. If this privilege be denied, the children of Christian parents are in a worse condition than the children of the Jews; and consequently infants are in a worse condition since Christ’s coming, than they were before, and the privileges of those that lived under the law.
Observe farther, In whose name persons are to be baptized; In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Where we have a profession of our belief in the Holy Trinity, a dedication of the person to the worship and service of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to our lives end.
The third branch of the power which Christ delegated to his apostles, was, by their ministry to press upon all their converts an universal of, and obedience to, all his commands; Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I command you.
Where note, 1. That preaching is the ordinary and instituted means to convert nations unto God.
2. That preaching must not only go before baptism, but follow after it. Obedience must be pressed upon, and practiesed by all those that enter into covenant with God; otherwise they lie under a great condemnation.
3. That preaching of gospel is a chief part of the minister’s work, and no apostle thought himself above that duty.
4. As the apostles did not, so the ministers of Christ ought not to teach anything but what Christ commands them, so they are to teach all things whatsoever Christ commands them: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I command you.
Lastly, Observe the promised enjoined; Lo, I am with you always, to the end of the world. This is, I am, and will be, with you and you successors, lawfully called by my power and authority, by the blessing and assistance of my Holy Spirit. I will be with you, to uphold my own ordinance, to protect, encourage, and reward you, and all your successors, in the faithful discharge of your trust; and this is not for a day, a year, or an age, but to the end and consummation of all ages.
Learn hence, That the ministry of the word, and administration of the sacraments, are a standing and perpetual ordinance, to continue in the Christian church thoughout all ages.
Learn 2. That all the faithful ministers of Christ, in what part of the world soever God shall cast their lot, and in what time soever they shall happen to live, may comfortably expect Christ’s gracious presence with their persons, and his blessing upon their endeavours. Lo, I am with you, I am always with you, and to the end of the world I will be with you. Thanks be to Christ, for the gracious promise of his spiritual and perpetual presence with his ministers to the end of the world. May this promise cause us to gird up the loins of our mind, increase our diligence, zeal, and fervour, accounting no labour too great, no service too much, no sufferings too severe, so that we may but finish our course with joy, and fulfil the ministry we are engaged in. Amen. Amen.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Mat 28:18. And Jesus came and spake unto them Even unto those mentioned in the last clause, who at first doubted, but whose doubts were afterward fully removed, and probably by his drawing near, and speaking familiarly with them. It tended much to the honour of Christ, says Henry, that [some of] the disciples doubted before they believed, for, in consequence of this, it cannot be said that they were credulous, and willing to be imposed upon, inasmuch as they first questioned and proved all things, and then embraced and held fast that which they found to be true. Christ, however, on this occasion, came and spake, not only to them that had doubted, but to all the disciples then assembled, and particularly to the apostles, whom it especially concerned to be fully satisfied of his resurrection, of which they were to be witnesses to mankind, and their knowledge of the truth of which they were to seal with their blood, and to whom the following commission was chiefly given. He therefore did not stand at a distance, but came near and gave them all such convincing proofs of his resurrection, as both turned the wavering scale of such as were slow of heart to believe, making their faith to triumph over their doubts, and gave perfect and lasting confirmation to the faith of the rest, particularly of his chosen witnesses, who certainly from this time never called in question in any degree, either the resurrection of their Lord, or the nature and importance of the commission he now gave them. Saying, All power is given unto me Gr. , all authority. It is manifest, as Beza observes, that authority and power differ from each other; for many are not able to perform those things which they have a right to do; and, on the contrary, many have power to do those things which they have no right to do. Our Lords authority, however, implies power also. It is the exaltation of our Lords human nature that is here chiefly intended, in union, however, with the divine. His meaning is fully explained in the following words: Because he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross: therefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that at his name every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and in earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess him Lord, to the glory of God the Father, Php 2:7-11. God hath raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and put all things under his feet, and given him to be the head over all things to (that is, for the benefit of) the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all, Eph 1:20-23. See the notes on these passages, and also on Joh 5:26-27; and Rom 14:9. The authority and power intended is that which Christ exercises as Son of man and Mediator; but it is evident, if he did not possess all divine perfections, he could not exercise it. Thus Dr. Whitby, He to whom any office is duly committed, must have sufficient power and wisdom to discharge that office. Now to govern all things in heaven and earth belongs only to him who is the Lord and Maker of them, and therefore is known by this title, both in Scripture and by the heathen. To have power over death, and to be able to raise the dead, is to have that power which is proper to God alone: and to have power over the souls of men, and the knowledge of all hearts, belongs to God alone. Our Lord, therefore, is invested with, and exercises this authority and power, although as the Son of man, yet not as a mere man, for as such it would have been impossible for him to exercise it, but as a man in whom dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Now Christ being about to send out his apostles as his ambassadors to the nations, with authority to propose to them terms of peace and reconciliation; being about to deliver to them the great charter of his kingdom in the world, and commission them to go forth and gather subjects to him everywhere, and to give laws to and govern those subjects; or to feed and rule his flock; and being about to do these things as Son of man; he first, with great propriety, shows them by what authority he acts, and who gave him that authority. He had indeed said, in effect, more than once before, all he now says, (see Mat 11:27; Joh 5:20-29,) namely, that all things were delivered unto him of his Father; that the Father had given him authority to execute judgment; yea, had committed all judgment unto him, that all men should honour him, the Son, even as they honour the Father. But though he had a right to, and was invested with, this power before, even during the whole time of his personal ministry; yet, he was not in a condition to exercise it, nor could he have exercised it with propriety, while he was in his state of humiliation, and bore the form of a servant; as he was to exercise it now, being raised from the dead, clothed with immortality and glory, and immediately to be exalted to the right hand of the throne of the divine Majesty in the heavens, Heb 8:1.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
CXLII.
THE GREAT COMMISSION GIVEN.
(Time and place same as last section.)
aMATT. XXVIII. 18-20; bMARK XVI. 15-18; cLUKE XXIV. 46, 47.
a18 And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. b15 And he said unto them, Go ye atherefore, binto all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. aand make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: 20 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: b16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned. cThus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day; 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. [The verses from Luke are taken from a later conversation, which will be handled in our Psa 8:6, 1Co 15:27, 1Co 15:28, magnifies instead of detracting from their wonderful import, for he deems its necessary to state that the Father himself is not subject to the Son. Surely in connection with this marvelous celestial power, his dominion over out tiny earth would not need to be mentioned if it were not that we, its inhabitants, are very limited in our conception of things, and require exceedingly plain statements. The command calls for the Christianizing of all nations. If we realized better that authority with which Christ prefaces his commission, the conquest of the nations in his name would seem to us a small matter indeed, and we should set about it expecting to witness its speedy accomplishment. The structure of the sentence in the original Greek shows that it is the disciples and not the nations who are to be baptized; according to the commission, therefore, one must be made a disciple before he can be baptized. Baptism brings us into divine relation to God. Being a part of the process of adoption, it is called a birth ( Joh 3:5). The baptized Christian bears the name into which he is baptized ( Rom 2:24, Jam 2:7). Luke sums up the whole commission by recording the words of Christ, wherein he states that he suffered that it might be preached to all nations that if men would repent, God could now forgive ( Rom 3:26). From Luke’s record we also learn that the preaching of these glad tidings was to begin at Jerusalem.] b17 And these signs shall accompany them that believe: in my name shall they cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; 18 they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. [The Book of Acts gives examples of each one of these except the fourth, and though we have no record of a disciple escaping the effects of drinking poison, [763] there is little doubt that in the many persecutions such cases did occur.] aand lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. [This is a promise not of bare companionship, but of full sympathy and support ( Isa 43:2, Exo 33:15, Jos 1:5). The duration of this promise shows that it is intended for all disciples.]
[FFG 762-764]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Jesus proceeded to address the Eleven. Matthew did not record them saying anything, which focuses our attention fully on Jesus’ words. Notice the repetition of "all" in Mat 28:18-20: all authority, all nations, all things, and all the days. Matthew stressed the authority of Jesus throughout his Gospel (Mat 7:29; Mat 10:1; Mat 10:7-8; Mat 11:27; Mat 22:43-44; Mat 24:35).
"Not merely power or might (dunamis), such as a great conqueror might claim, but ’authority’ (exousia), as something which is His by right, conferred upon Him by One who has the right to bestow it (Rev. ii. 27)." [Note: Plummer, p. 428.]
God restricted Jesus’ authority before His resurrection because of His role as the Suffering Servant. Following His resurrection God broadened the sphere in which Jesus exercised authority (cf. Mat 4:8-10). He became the One through whom God now mediates all authority (cf. Dan 7:14; Php 2:5-11). This was Jesus’ great claim.
"By raising Jesus from the dead and investing him with all authority, God vindicates Jesus and thus decides the conflict in his favor (Mat 28:5-6; Mat 28:18)." [Note: Kingsbury, Matthew as . . ., p. 8.]