The words that are before us tonight for our meditation are familiar words. We know them as the Great Commission. These are familiar to us. But let's hear these familiar verses afresh. When we do that, we find that the exalted and faithful Jesus sends his people out into all the world. That's what we've read of a few moments ago in Matthew 28. Now, make no mistake, in the passage that's before us, we're hearing from the exalted Jesus. Beginning in verse 16, we read this, Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. 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 always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. The disciples here see the one with whom they had traveled, the one whom they loved, they see their friend exalted. Evidently there was something visibly divinely majestic about Jesus' appearance here. In verse 17, Matthew tells us that when the disciples, standing in the Galilean hills, these same hills through which they had traveled with Jesus, those same hills in which they had heard this same Jesus teach and preach, when the disciples are standing in those hills and they see this same Jesus again, they fall to the ground and they worship Him. Now, verse 17 also says that some of them doubted. And we'll come back to that in just a few minutes. But Matthew makes it clear that when Jesus appeared to his disciples, the overwhelming reaction was to fall to the ground in worship. The humble Jesus is exalted. And that exaltation fills the words that Jesus speaks here to his disciples. Verse 18, Jesus begins his address to his disciples by saying, in verse 18, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Jesus tells his disciples that he is the reigning sovereign in all of creation. The one who stands before them holds definitive power over all creation. All authority is his. The Jesus who had been brutalized and mocked by the Roman soldiers. The Jesus who, by all appearances, had actually been bested by the Jewish leaders. He now sits enthroned over all. There's no power, there's no authority that can rival His own. It all is His. All authority resides with and in the exalted Jesus. But Jesus doesn't just tell His disciples that He's exalted in this reign. He also reveals that He's exalted simply in who He is. Verse 19, Jesus is telling the disciples the work that they are to undertake, and He tells them that when they baptize, they are to baptize, verse 19, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Jesus is the second person of the triune God of heaven and earth. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are one God. You'll notice that when Jesus tells His disciples how to baptize, He doesn't tell them to baptize in the name of the Father, and in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Ghost. Jesus doesn't tell them to do that because these three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, They don't have three different names. They're not three different gods. They share one name, the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. One name, one God in three persons. Now, when we come here up against the being of the Trinity, we're confronted with an impenetrable mystery. We don't have the time this evening to explore the Scriptures any further on this point, but we don't really need to in order to grasp the magnitude of what Jesus is claiming here. He is of one name with the Father and the Spirit. The name that God will share with no one else is Jesus'. It's the Son and the Father and the Spirit. The three are one God. Jesus is equal with the Father. He's equal with the Spirit in power and in glory. In the most profound, absolute sense, He is God. The one who stands before the disciples is exalted. Now, brothers and sisters, we need to see, we need to come to terms with The Jesus of Matthew 28 verses 16 through 20. The Jesus whom we worship and whom we serve. He is meek and he is gentle. But he's also exalted. He's luminous in his glory. He is unchecked in his power. He is the exalted and enthroned king of all creation. As the opening chapter of the book of Hebrews puts it, he upholds all things by the word of his power. That's who Jesus is. He's the one who stands before the disciples, his very presence compelling their adoration, and he tells them that all authority is his. There is no authority in heaven or on earth that isn't his own. He is regal. Does your obedience reflect that? When Jesus tells you in his word to do hard things, to do unpleasant things, when he tells you to forgive those who have sinned against you, when he tells you to turn the other cheek when those around you wrong you, When he tells you to love your neighbor as yourself, no matter how inconvenient or even seemingly distasteful that love might be. When he tells you to pursue maniacally purity in your thoughts and in your speech and in your gazes. When he tells you what he tells you in this passage, Do you receive those commands as the commands of the reigning King of all creation? Or do you receive them as friendly suggestions from a gentle man? Suggestions that can either be taken or declined? Does your obedience testify that you actually believe that Jesus is who our passage says that He is? Is Jesus's authority reflected in your obedience to his commands? What about your worship? Are you enraptured in worship, knowing that you're worshiping the King of creation? Do you worship him the way that he appears in these verses? As radiant, majestic, awe-inspiring? inducing his people to fall to the ground in adoration because of who he is. Now, praise be to God, Jesus is our shepherd. He's our brother. He's our friend. But even as he is all of these things, he simultaneously is the exalted Lord of all. And that fact, that glory, must influence our obedience, our worship, all of our lives. We worship and serve the exalted Jesus. But in the passage before us this evening, we see even more. As Matthew describes this majestic scene for us, we see that Jesus isn't only exalted. He also is faithful. Look at the words with which Jesus closes in verse 20. He's told the disciples what's expected of them. And then Jesus says in verse 20, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. At all times, in all places, Jesus would be with his people. They couldn't outrun, they couldn't outlive the care and the presence of the God who reigned in all of creation. Now there would come a time, actually not too far from this very day, when Jesus would go away, when He would ascend into heaven. The disciples wouldn't always see Jesus as they see Him here. And they wouldn't always know these times of unbridled, overwhelming worship as they did then, collapsed in the hills of Galilee. These very same men would go on to be harassed, persecuted, killed, All of it without any visible glimpse of the Jesus who stood before them here. These men would know times when, to the human understanding, it might appear that Jesus didn't possess the authority that He claimed to possess. But even then, He was with them. Always. Until the age end. Never would the sovereign Jesus leave, abandon, or forsake his people. He would be everywhere eternally with them. Think about it. In a very real way, Jesus stands things on their head here. He just has told His disciples that He reigns in all of creation. He is the everlasting God. He reigns. He reigns over them. As God, He has made them. He is their King. You might expect Jesus to say, stay with me. I have authority. I reign. Do not leave my side. But He doesn't. Jesus doesn't As an imperious king, tell his people not to forsake him. No, he stoops in his eternal majesty. He stoops and he tells his people that he will never leave them. Even as he commands their loyalty, he gives them his own. He's faithful. Faithful to his people. A people who never will be without him. Until the mountains crumble into the sea, until history collapses on itself, until the end of the age, he will be with them. No distance. No span of time can separate God's people from their Redeemer. The luminous Jesus in our passage is the faithful Jesus. Now, this is one of the most precious promises in the Scripture. If you're a Christian this evening, Jesus is always with you. Sorrows come Hardships press us. Our own sinfulness makes us want to flee away. But those whom Jesus has bought with His own blood, He will never leave. He's with them always. And quite often, Christians go through periods in which they feel that God has left them. That He's hidden His face. Times of sorrow. Times of trial. Times of hardship, despair. Times of deep loneliness, almost desertion. Perhaps you've known those days. Perhaps you're in the midst of those days. But in a voice louder and more clear than all of our sufferings, Jesus says, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. The Jesus whose authority is unrivaled, whose promises are unchallenged. The Jesus whose promises cannot be mitigated or undone by something outside of his control because nothing is outside of his control. That Jesus says that he always is with his people. If you're his, he's always with you. There's wonderful comfort in that. But it's not an idle comfort. It's a comfort that Jesus imparts for a reason. When we look at the whole of our passage, we see that the exalted and faithful Jesus sends his people out into all the world. Look again at verses 19 and 20. Beginning in verse 19, Jesus says, "'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.'" Jesus commands his people to go and to make disciples. And then immediately he tells them what he means by that. Making disciples means baptizing and teaching. And when Jesus speaks of baptizing and teaching, he's speaking of these categories of tasks that the disciples are to undertake. They're to take the good news of salvation into all the earth. These men who were disciples were to go and make other disciples as well. They were to make others into men and women who loved Jesus, who believed in him, who walked after him in obedience. That's the work that these disciples were to undertake, to spread the gospel, telling everyone everywhere about Jesus. And Jesus lays this mammoth task before 11 men, 11 men, standing in the desolate hills of the backwater region of Galilee. And these aren't just any men. These were men who, in the very near past, had left Jesus when he was about to be arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. The one who was telling them that he would never forsake them. They had forsaken him. Scattering in Gethsemane, running from Jesus precisely when nearness to Jesus became really costly. Think about it. The last time that these disciples had been with Jesus. Had been in the darkness of Gethsemane. And they'd abandoned him. That's the reason for the strange note in verse 17, when Matthew tells us that at Jesus's appearing, the disciples worshiped him, but some doubted. The language Matthew uses there doesn't mean that the disciples doubted Jesus. It means that they doubted what to do. They worried. They had forsaken Jesus. And now he stands before them in iridescent glory." What do you do? Do you fall down in worship? Do you apologize? Do you run? What do you do when the one whom you have forsaken stands before you in power and in glory? Some of the disciples doubted. as Matthew says, uncertain what nearness to the one whom they had deserted meant for them. But it's to these men, this band of disloyal, cowardly, fleeing men, it's to these men that Jesus gives this ponderous task to cover the whole earth with the gospel, making disciples everywhere. To say that this is overwhelming would be a gross understatement. But that's precisely what Jesus has in mind. It's precisely why Jesus has shown them and told them of His exaltation. It's precisely why Jesus had told them of His unshakable, faithful presence with them. As the disciples go into all the earth to attempt a seemingly impossible task, They go at the instruction of the one who controls creation. They don't go into a foreign hostile realm. They go into the creation that Jesus controls. They go in his power into his domain. And as they go, he goes with them. When they stand before powerful men and proclaim the gospel. When they stare at skeptical people who can't believe what they preach. When they watch men and women be made alive by the work of the Spirit. When they stare down lines or find themselves nailed to crosses of execution as they go at Jesus's command, He goes with them. handed a seemingly impossible charge. There is no reason for God's people to hesitate or to falter in their obedience because the Jesus who possesses all power will never leave their side. That's the grandeur of the Great Commission. The call for Christians to spread the gospel, to tell others about Jesus, to teach them truth and obedience, and to do so with the compulsion and the confidence of knowing that they go in the power and with the presence of Jesus Christ. And of course, this Great Commission isn't only for the disciples. It's for all the church. It's for us this evening. To put it very simply, very directly, are you, as a disciple of Jesus, obeying the Great Commission? Are you, as a church body, obeying the Great Commission? Do we tell other people about Jesus? Do we tell them that Jesus saves sinners? Do we tell them that they need Jesus? Do we tell them about the salvation that we have found in His blood? Ask yourself honestly, when was the last time you talked about Jesus with someone not in this congregation and not in your own family? Was it in the past week? Was in the past month? Was in the past year? What would someone have to do? to get you to talk to Him about Jesus? Would He have to come out and ask you? Would He have to come to church on a Sunday morning and talk about the sermon afterward with you? What does someone have to do to get us to tell them about Jesus? Are we sharing the gospel? All of you are here for a Wednesday evening prayer meeting. You're good at coming in. And that's vitally important. But are you going out? Remember, this is a command of the reigning king of all creation. This isn't a suggestion. It isn't something that's limited to a certain number of people. It's not something limited only to the outgoing ones. It's not something limited only to the ordained ministers and elders. Jesus is speaking to his people. He's commanding his people. He's declaring, I reign. You go. And I'll be with you. He's not calling us all to be foreign missionaries. But he is calling us to be witnesses. The ruling, reigning sovereign in all of creation is commanding it. Are we listening? Are you listening? Are you obeying? Outside of these walls, does the world even know that the Free Reform Congregation of Grand Rapids exists? If it does, what does it hear from you? Does it hear how bad the world is? Or does it hear how glorious our Jesus is? Now, here's where it gets even more uncomfortable. We all, I would guess, want to be considered disciples of Jesus. We want to be, and we suppose that we are, Jesus's people, his disciples. Well, in our passage, Jesus has told us what being a disciple means. If making disciples means baptizing and teaching, then being a disciple must involve being baptized and being taught. A disciple is someone who has been baptized and who is being taught. But taught what? Well, in verse 20, Jesus says that all of his disciples in all the ages are to be taught to obey, verse 20, all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Well, Jesus just had commanded them to go and make disciples. Part of being a disciple would be obeying the command to make other disciples. Telling others about Jesus isn't optional. It's part of what makes a disciple a disciple. Obeying the command to go. If you're not telling others about Jesus, if you're not obeying the Great Commission, you're not doing what disciples are supposed to do. You're not being a disciple. Spreading the gospel isn't easy. It's oftentimes awkward, it's uncomfortable, it can make us feel embarrassed, uneasy, but it's what Christians do. It's what we're commanded to do. In spite of the difficulty and awkwardness of it, it's what Christians love to do, to tell others about the Jesus whom they adore. No, that doesn't mean you have to become a street preacher. You have to hand out tracks, gospel tracks, to everyone you know. But it does mean that all of us are to be ready to speak of Jesus and His glory to others. That we're to have our eyes open, looking for opportunities to share something of Jesus and the gospel. God's given all of us different gifts, different strengths, different abilities. And we're to think intentionally about how those gifts can be used to show the beauty of the gospel. God has given all of us specific and unique relationships. Relationships with family members, with friends, with neighbors. We're to think intentionally about how, through those relationships, we can lay the good news of Jesus before those around us. With the gifts that He has given us and the place where He has situated us, God wants each of us to bear witness that there is life-changing redemption in Jesus. That's obedience. And in ways that are beyond our imagining, the Jesus who reigns in all the earth and who never is distant from us, he takes that feeble obedience and he uses it for his glory. He uses obedience. Obedience that testifies that we, in spite of all of our brokenness and our incompetence, we are his disciples. Going in the name of the one who reigns, going in the name of the one who, even in the awkwardness of our obedience, never leaves our side. That's the Christian's great comfort in this challenge that's set before him. He's called to a hard task, but he goes at the behest of the sovereign Lord and he has the promise that he doesn't go alone. The exalted and faithful Jesus sends his people out into all the world. Just as Jesus is calling us to a difficult task here, he's assuring us that his power, his presence, they go with us. He's giving us what we need to do what we otherwise could not do. He's giving us himself. His power, His presence, the exalted and faithful Jesus sends His people out into all the world. And the wonder of it is that He goes through them and He goes with them. May God be pleased to show all of us the power, the grandeur, the faithfulness of Jesus that we might be confident as we render obedience to His command to tell others about the redemption that we have found in Him. Amen. Let's pray. Our great God, Father in heaven, We rejoice tonight that all authority in heaven and in earth has been given to our Jesus. That he reigns in all of creation. That there is no authority and there is no power that is not of him and from him and in him. And we give thee thanks, O Lord, for this blessed promise that Christ hath spoken unto his people and that he speaks even to us, that he is with us always. We confess, O Lord, that we have not believed this promise and that we have not obeyed the command to go and to make disciples. Forgive us, O Lord, for our timidity and for our embarrassment, for our fear of men. We ask, O Lord, that Thou wouldst work in our hearts by Thy Spirit. Work in the hearts of each of us here tonight individually. Work in the midst of this congregation as a body. Work, O Lord, by Thy Spirit in the midst of Thy church. Throughout this city, throughout this nation and this world, make us, O Lord, to be faithful witnesses, to be disciples who go into all the earth confident that our blessed Jesus goes with us. And that even through our halting and faltering labors, he is pleased to accomplish his great work. To make valleys of dry bones to rise and to live again. And to usher in that day when every tear shall be wiped out of our eyes. We ask, O Lord, that Thou wouldst indeed be with this congregation. That Thou wouldst kindle and feed an evangelistic spirit within it. That there would be a boldness with the gospel. That there would be an ease with sharing that gospel. We pray, Lord, that in the hearts of this congregation, thou wouldst grow a love for sinners. A mourning for them. As they are lost in sin. But we confess it as we look upon the world around us and we see wickedness and rebellion. Our tendency, O Lord, is toward anger and frustration. We tend, O Lord, to look at the world around us as those against whom we are opposed. We don't weep over them as our blessed Lord Jesus wept over those, even those who were set to kill Him. Give us, O Lord, hearts like the Lord Jesus, hearts that see the sin in the world around us, that see the rebellion and are made by it to grieve and to give of ourselves to the last measure in order to see men and women who are outside brought in Where there's covering in the blood and there's mercy. And there's life everlasting. Make this congregation, O Lord, to be one filled with and suffused with that love for sinners. With a sense of the freeness and the all sufficiency of grace. And with a confident boldness. To be lights in the midst of a dark and perverse generation. Lord, we pray thou wouldst be with those outside of this congregation and even of this congregation who even now are serving as witnesses in this world. We pray, Lord, that those who bear testimony to Christ, to witness to him that thou wouldst give them boldness. that Thou wouldst give them confidence not in themselves or in others, but confidence in the work of Thy Spirit. Lord, we know only the smallest part of the hardness of our own hearts. And Thou, O Lord, by Thy gospel and by Thy Spirit hast been pleased to break our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh, and unite us to Christ and bring us into the family of God. Lord, thou canst do it again and do it mightily in our own town, in our own families, around the world, even through our own labors. We pray, O Lord, that thou wouldst do it. We long, O Lord, to see days of power when many are gathered in and those who are gathered in are built up and encouraged and strengthened and edified and go from strength to strength in grace. Lord, do these things by Thy Spirit, we beg. Send out Thy people and bless their labors. and bring them back, O Lord, with a full and a bountiful harvest. And do it all in such a way that the blessed Lord Jesus increases and all of His servants decrease. To all these things we pray, O Lord, and be pleased, O God, to redeem Israel out of all of his troubles. For we ask it in Jesus's wonderful name. Amen.