“Go and Make Disciples of All Nations” | Matthew 28:16–20

Show Notes

Episode 736: 
In this episode, Chris and Jeff dive into a lively discussion about the Great Commission, found in Matthew 28:16-20. They explore the significance of Jesus' last words to His disciples. They highlight the importance of the Great Commission, emphasizing that Jesus commands His followers to go out and make disciples of all nations. They discuss the context of this command, noting that even among the eleven disciples, some doubted despite having witnessed Jesus' resurrection and miracles.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. My name is Chris, and it's going to be an amazing episode today. Chris, it is because this is the first one of the week. You have to say your name. I'm Jeff. There you go say that we have this cool I'm je behind us. You've got a star over your head because you're a star. I am a star. I'm a star. Hey. By the way, this morning, just this morning, I got three texts. So it's nine am on a Wednesday. We're filming this. Three texts. I said, you're a star. No, I got three texts saying that apparently the Bible Guys episode that aired this morning. One was from Russia. I got a text from Russia of saying of somebody saying that. They appreciate their watching you. They said that, yes, but they said they appreciated me saying that Lazarus came out of the tune with jazz hands. Yeah, it was three texts this morning. Well, that's the deep stuff to everybody's Bible study of promotional material is jazz hands. You're welcome everybody. That's awesome. So it is going to be a great day. And the reason why we have stars over our heads is because the set behind us is set up for kids camp at Heritage Church. Yeah. Yeah, this kind of our big vacation Bible school during the during the summer, and we had like five hundred kids last night. Or some crazy things crazy. Yeah, So they're using this stage and then we just pop in in the middle of the day to shoot this podcast. We're borring it. This will be for the next couple weeks. I think it'll be up for our listeners. That's great. So well, hey, we have a segment that Desiree gave us, and this is one of our it's the only one that has a theme song. It does ready mail bag, and it's our listeners send in comments or questions or critiques and complaints mostly yes, disagreements with the crazy Bible guys, and Desiree kind of filters through those and puts one out for us and then we get to answer it. So this one today is from Amanda b Amanda, be Hi Amanda, and it says you both strike me as open books. Thanks Amanda, comic books. I think probably is, Yeah, what do you are? You a sophisticated novel and I'm a comic book? Is that what it is? You know? I say comic books? It was plural, So. I'm multiple books and like the Great gats mean or something. Okay, I get. It, Crime and Punishment, I get it. Here you go. You both strike me as open books. But is there something you wish people saw or understood about you that they really usually don't? Yeah, that's a Mannes's question. So, you know, it seems like we're fairly transparent. So which is the ruse we've been keeping up for quite some time? I do have something instinctively that Kim comes to mind. Okay, so you and I both are the same personality profile type in a lot of ways, right, Yes, in a lot of ways. We have the same spiritual gifts, same personality profile type, which is kind of funny. The fact that the world got two of us, just one of them is really it's what a blessing, What an age to be living in. You're welcome, You're welcome everybody. Yeah, it's pretty bad. So, but we are according to the Myers Briggs In case you're familiar, with that is we are e n tpis in which stands for extrovert intuitive thinker and then perceiver. That's correct, right, Yes, Now what is the percentage? Isn't isn't it a rare type? Yeah, it's like two to three percent of the population has that. Yeah, two to three percent. Think about that, like, wow, that's a lot, right, so or it's small. No, No, I meant. I meant like, that's a lot to take. It's a lot to take in. Yeah, a lot to take it. It is what I meant anyway. So the point is is that because of our personality profile type, somebody on the that might interact with me, maybe on a leadership level or you know, behind the scenes, or you know, maybe if we're working on projects together. Uh, we don't necessarily come across as the most emotional people. But yet I feel every emotion, right, So, like even in my interactions, uh, you know, like I'll respond to something and and and and they may say, well, wow, you're not as sensitive and you don't think about these emotions. Whatever. The e NTP personality profile, the high thinker can come across that way. But I actually believe or not, I wish people knew that you know and you know this about me, like I have a ton of. Emotion, yes, yes, right, you know that. Yeah yeah, yeah, Well you're you're you're an emotional person. Yes. I think the e NTP part of it for you because your your emotions are out there. Everybody knows. You're quick to cry, you're quick to laugh. Yeah, you live your entire life in hyperbole. It's all big or little. It's it's the best or the worst. Right, So, so the emotion side is there the differ diferences for an EMTP. We're not shy about being very direct because of the efficiency of it, because we're not offended when people are direct with us, right, My fact we prefer people to be direct with us. That's right, is my fact. That was going to be my thing is I think I think I would prefer people to be direct with me and it's not offensive as long as you're coming in with a good attitude. I prefer people to be direct, and I think sometimes people misunderstand our directness. So I think you are much more emotional and that's that has to do with all the other things. It's not like you stuffed down your emotions like I do. Instead, I think it's just that you you also are willing to be direct because you want to make it better. So you're like, hey, this is awful, let's fix it. And you don't mean you're an awful person. You're saying, this product is awful, let's make this product better, right, And you're not shy about being direct on that, And I think that that feels like you're heartless and you're not. You've got like the biggest heart in the world. Chris, I appreciate that, man, Thank you. Yeah, that was hyperbole. I was I was just gonna say, I was just gonna say that's a little overstatement. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was gonna say. The other thing is I wish I wish people understood about me that sometimes I talk fast and and quote a lot of scripture, so it sounds like I know what I'm doing, But really I just want somebody to bring me tacos. Hey. We did have people show up and heard in church and bring you uh for what is it called? And then uh yeah, yeah that was right. This week. They were sitting on my on my table in my office when I came in, so it was great. Somebody brought me one yesterday too, it was super nice. So keeping coming people. Let's keep going. I meant to say thank you. I meant to say thank you. Right right, right, but I'm talking to the list now. Somehow you've managed this living in tacos. Yeah, that's right, So the bring me tacos. That's so. The other thing I wish people would know is I have a high level of satisfaction with setting goals and accomplishing goals. And because then you know this, I measure everything. I measure everything, yes, so I know exactly what the trend has been, and then I just try to move the needle a couple percentage points on a trend. I'm satisfied when we hit that trend. We keep moving on. Just move along, move along, movement. And so what happens I forget to celebrate, and I forget to go tell people how amazing they are and thank you and that you've made this happen and you know, all those things that I forget to celebrate, and so I kind of leave people in the dust, sometimes unintentionally. And to be fair, most unfortunately, most leaders forget to celebrate. Yeah, yeah, most strong leaders forget to celebrate. Yeah. And in the church world, the kind of work we do. Sunday comes every seven days. I don't know if our listeners have ever contemplated that, right, but Sunday comes every seven days. So it's just bang bang bang bang bang. You know, if this was a Broadway show that we were doing, we would do the exact same thing with the same line. It's in the same moves, the same lighting, and the same songs for weeks and weeks and months and months and months. And instead every message is brand new the next weekend. Every song that is done wasn't done last week, right, all the stuff that we do, and so there's a lot of chaos in trying to make every weekend happen in a meaningful way for thousands and thousands of people. And not to mention creative ideas incepting from scratch. And of course we rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us with regard to our messages, and we invite him into the planning and all those things. But as we're racing along, sometimes it can feel like we forget. And so that's the thing I wish people knew how much, how incredibly grateful I am for the fact that they've joined us on this mission and they're making it happen together. It's really great. But I forget. I forget to say thank you a. Lot great answers. Oh, that's wonderful. And I just want tacos. And yeah, and somehow I always want to talk to he doesn't want. To talk exactly that deep down inside. Yeah, if you want to know that secret thing deep done inside. We just want tacos. So we're read at our time. Actually we're about a minute past our time. But what's your favorite taco place in the area? My tacos. I love those pork tacos I make with the Oh. Oh, but if somebody were to bring you tacos, what's your favorite? Oh, I don't know. I don't I don't even have a favorite taco place here. You just like all tacos. Yeah, okay, all right, all right, just just asking so for the sake of our listeners. Yes, well, hey, uh boy, I don't even know what transition for this. One, speaking of. Going out and finding tacos. Finding tacos, Jesus commands us to go out and find disciples. Oh yeah, that is terrible. Yeah, yeah, it's a terrible transition. Well, that does come up here in Matthew chapter twenty eight. It does one of the this is like the last thing Jesus is saying. These are the last orders he gives us before he goes back, known as. The Great Commission. And wouldn't you think that somebody's last words would be important? I would imagine. Yeah. Well, in the military, they have the principle of the last standing orders. So whatever the last order you got, you're supposed to keep doing that until you get a new order. I know you're going to complete this, but complete this the rest of this quote. Okay. My father's final words were. Oh, yeah, yeah, Yeah, there's Princess Bride. Yeah, ye, Prince humperdink. I don't know. I can't remember. Love her, yes, as I have loved her, and and there will be peace in the land. No joy, joy, love. As I've loved her, and there will be joy. Okay. So here we are in Matthew chapter twenty eight. Yep, and we're going to start in verse sixteen. Just read to the end of the chapter. It says, then the eleven disciples left for Galilee. Do you remember Jesus had died and risen I do remember that Judas is out of the picture. Now he killed himself, and so now there's only eleven disciples, yep. And so then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some of them doubted. Jesus came and told his disciples, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I've given you. And be sure of this. I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Yeah, so very quick, A very quick what five verses? But I have to say this the thing that always sticks out when I read this, and it's only recorded here in Matthew obviously, but it says the eleven disciples. Now we all know that every follower of Jesus is referred to as a disciple. That's correct. And the twelve that were chosen have the title of apostle. So not all disciples are apostles, but all apostles are also disciples. That's correct, because disciples are just simple followers of him. So sometimes in the Bible, when they say his disciples followed him, they can refer to the crowds of followers. But in this case, this is my point. In this case, he's referring to the eleven. Yes, right, yes, So he says, the eleven disciples for Galilee went to the mountainside where Jesus had told him to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some of them doubted. So clearly he's not talking about the crowd of disciples. He is saying that some of the eleven doubted. And that always floors me because this is, you know, some of Jesus's last words, which means he's on the back end of his forty days here, right, So Jesus is on the back end. He's already risen. He's already appeared to the disciples. He's already told Thomas, come and touch my you know, hands and my side. He's already appeared with people, walked with people, you know, he made fish, you know, breakfast for them. He's given forgiveness to Peter, he's taught I mean, goodness, gracious, how can the eleven still doubt? Well? Do you think it says some Do you think that this because Matthew does not tell the story of doubting Thomas. Oh wow, I never had that thought before. Right, So he doesn't tell the story of Thomas. So you think Matthew is just summarizing. And a bunch of other stuff happened by the way Thomas doubted. And then he moves on because he leaves out every kind of stuff there. Wow, because it literally goes from the religious leaders are bribing the guards. Yeah, then there's forty days, yeah, and then Jesus is going back to heaven. Right, yeah, they go They go literally straight from bribing the guards to Jesus' last word. Yeah. Because Matthew's purpose was different than the others, right, So Matthew's just trying to establish that Jesus Matthew wrote to the Jews explaining that Jesus was the Messiah. That's right, And so the other things he leaves out different things that don't drive rate at that exact idea. So the death barrel resurrection happened. Now he goes back to having gives us ob mission. The other things aren't really part of his narrative. And Luke wrote primarily to the gentiles. To the gentiles. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, So imagine that. Imagine these writers who recording the Gospels, and one of them is directed specifically at you know, good Jewish boys and ladies who grew up and completely know the Jewish customs, you know, believers of the Old Testament, the Old Testament God, the Law of Moses. They knew like the back of their hand. And and Matthew is connecting the dots right and then and then people like gentiles, which is everybody who's non Jewish, they grew up not knowing necessarily the Law of Moses, not practicing hardly anything. So a lot of the stuff you'll see in Matthew you don't see in Luke. But Luke was a doctor, right, Yes, So Luke was very precise, he was very technical, and he's the guy who like unpacks empirical evidence. He's the guy who has like full explanations, and he's the one that's trying to convince the non believer, in the non Jewish person that Jesus is the Messiah. And Matthew Levi was a tax collector, yes, and so he has kind of a it's almost like a checklist when you read his thing, he goes and then he did this, and then he did this, and then he did this, and then he did this. Right, that's what he's doing. He's kind of checking off the Jewish checklist of this is why he's a Messiah, and this is why he's Messiah, and this is why he's Messiah. Right. So they both have a lot of precision in the way that they write. It's just the pacing of Matthews isn't always in the storytelling of it as much as it is the factual evidence that this guy is the Messiah. So I think that this is just referencing Thomas. This is what I think it is. Because it also doesn't mention the fact that Jesus came to Peter when Peter was fishing in Jesus fixing breakfast on the side of the thing. It doesn't mentioned the disciples on the road to Mas that Jesus came and taught, right, there's all those other things. There's a lot of things missing in that in the gap between verse was it fifteen and verse sixteen. So so there's there's there's one that answer that explanation, which I've not heard before either came from one of four places. Either A you've heard that before in a sermon. No, I just thought of it. B. Well, you didn't even let me say all four. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was gonna say b's. Gonna say B B you just thought of it. Yes, uh C you studied it in the past and discovered it yourself. No, I've never contemplated it. Or D I was going to say there was a note in your life up. No, Nope, there's It's just I'd never really thought about it before. But wow, Actually, here's how it works. You say a thing and I immediately try to figure out why it's wrong in everything and everything and every dingy yeah, yeah, everything. You come in this morning, Hey, good morning. I'm like, it wasn't that good of a morning. Wow. Listen, you just said a minute ago you ranb off scripture and you speak quickly, so people think you know what you're doing right, But in the end, you just want tacos. Just a simple guy. Guy. That's so funny, Dude, that's funny. So okay, that's ridiculous. Anyways, I think it's You're right. It is amazing because it's the sentence by itself says when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some of them doubted, right, And that sentence is crazy. But what we feel like is they're going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go, and we feel like this doubt happens right before he speaks at the mountain, right right, And I just I'm not sure I believe that that's what's happening there. Well, yeah, because I mean think about it. I mean just I mean, you already said it already, but think about the plethora of him information that is not even talked about. It is it is being summarized in a couple sentences. And so this is why studying the Bible so much fun, because the Bible explains itself. It's its own best commentary. So when you read all four narratives Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and then you read the first couple chapters of Acts, you kind of know you understand how all these things are working. And they cross reference each other and explain each other a little bit. So anyways, the big point here is that Jesus says, I've been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Why because of his death, buryl and resurrection, right, he paid the price. God says, Okay, you are the name above every name. Later on we find out at the name of Jesus, every knee is going to about and heaven and on earth under the earth. Right, you know what that reminds me of? By the way, sorry, I had the instrument of this thought. You ever see Brian Reagan, my favorite comedian. Yes, he actually says, the most lazy writing in the world is the phrase and then one thing led to another. That's a great one, yeah, he says, he says, He says in nineteen or he goes at the late eighteen hundreds, there was a little boy born named Adolf Hitler, and he goes, and one thing led to another dot dot dot, and then the United States dropped it at. And Bob on Japan. Yeah. One thing led to another, right, Yeah, one thing led to another. And there's so much in the middle of that. Well, that's what Matthew's doing, right. This is one of the things that's part of the beauty of why God gave four gospels. Yeah, that's right, right, is that each of them is appealing to a different thinker in a different worldview. When you collectively put them together, they tell many of the same stories, many the same events. Then they all tell different events that the others don't really cover very much, and then they give it from different eyewitness accounts. You know, if you and I were standing on the sidewalking we both saw a car accident, we would see it in a different way. We would remember different facts. And so when the police come and they're doing an investigation, they want you and me to give the facts the way we saw them. But what they're looking for is the differences in our facts so they can piece the whole story together. Right, if we came and gave the exact same storyline, it would sound like we rehearsed it, like we planned it right, like we colluded together. But when you get when you get these different writers and they're writing it from different perspectives, you begin to realize, Okay, they're not colluding. They saw the same thing, they experienced the same thing. So Jesus says, I've been given all authority in heaven on earth, And he says, because of that, therefore, anytime you read the word therefore. I used to have a professor say, any time you read the word therefore, you should pause and try to figure out what that's there for. That's right, because something big happened right before. That's right, right. So we all quote pat pastors love quoting the next verse, But the reality is the power of the next verse is in the verse before. I've been given all authority. So since I'm in charge and I've been given all authority because of that, now I want you to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, tone the Father's son in the Holy Spirit, and teach these new believers to obey all the commands they've given you. And so he's given us a mission. The last thing Jesus said, you would think Jesus on his way to heaven, you think he'd say, hey, guys, it's going to be okay. I'm gonna come back and get you someday. Hang in there, guys, you yeah, hang in there, guys. Right, you can do all things through me, right right, that's what you think he'd say. That's that's what we're wanting him to say. We certainly don't want him give us a job, right right. We want him to tell us all our wild this dreams are going to come true now that he's going to heaven. And he said he says, I've got a job for you. Go make disciples. You want to know what I have? People ask me all the time, Jeff, I'm just not sure what I'm supposed to I've been a Christian for all these years. I still don't feel like God's really spoken to me. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with my life. And I'm like I do if he hasn't spoken anything else, go make disciples. That's what you're supposed to do. Yeah, yeah, And it's not. Just making disciples, it's making disciple makers. Yes, that's right, right, because we have disciples who make disciples. And so here we are on the back end of it, two thousand years later, where you know, if if they would have just stopped right just by making disciples and then saying, Okay, we've done our job, We've committed the assignment, right, But that's not what happened. The gospel continued to, you know, spread from the Middle East all the way to where we are here in Michigan through generations of people, and since then, billions of people have crossed over and they've become a disciple, and many of them have made disciples, right, And so yeah, that's what God wants us to do. He wants disciples making disciples who make disciples. So we are disciple makers, that's what we are. And so you have to understand that at this point, we know this. If you turn the pages a couple of pages, go to Acts chapter one, there were one hundred and twenty people in the Upper Room praying, waiting for the Holy Spirit. So it's about one hundred and twenty disciples, right. The twelve apparently made ten apiece, right, Yeah, somehow, So there's one hundred and twenty disciples. They're in the Upper Room, they're praying from there. Every other disciple that's ever followed Jesus ever since, every one of our listeners that claims to be a follower of Jesus, that's a Christian. All of us come from those one hundred and twenty that were in the Upper Room on that day. And so God's goal, Jesus' goal in this moment was everybody who's not yet needs to be right. Heaven's real, Hell is real. This is He's going back into eternity in this moment, and He's like, man, I wanted to bring everybody I can with me, so I need you guys to go. You have a mission. While you're here on earth. You have a mission. And I mentioned this before, it's kind of funny. We tend to think Christianity's about us, Salvation's about us, God's blessings are all about us, and it's just kind of almost maybe it's a hint at the narcissistic world we live in that it's all focused on us. But think about that for a minute, that the Gospel has been moving from disciple to disciple to disciple for two thousand years, and for two thousand years, it's been traveling from person to person at great peril and great risk for many of them, people being put in prison, people being executed, martyred because of the gospel. And yet they just kept doing it. They kept taking the gospel. So then what happens? It gets to you and God goes it finally made it to Jeff, there we did it. That's done. Yeah, right right? Instead of understanding the gospel came to me and you on the way to someone else, right right, It can't possibly in this incredible two thousand year thread of God working miracles, Surely his intent was not for the thread that got to me to end with me. It's supposed to go on to our family, our friends, and this is what Jesus is saying. So I think a lot of times people have an understanding that they're supposed to be sharing the gospel, they just haven't developed the skill set. I think that that's really really important. You've got to begin knowing God's word and learning how to share the gospel so that people can respond. Yeah, and you don't have to be a scholar to do that. No, all you have to do is just know your story. Yeah, you can just say, hey, there's three parts of every great conversion story, which is, hey, here's all I know. I know that this is where I was before I met Jesus, and then here's how I met Jesus, and now my life is better because of Jesus. Right, And that holds true whether your life was tragic or whether your life was going fantastic, but yet there was an emptiness inside. And I always encourage people in that middle part, here's how I met Jesus. A lot of people say I went to church and got baptized, and now I'm a Christian, as opposed to you discovered that you were a sinner that needed a savior. Right that that part is what your friend needs to hear is that we're all sinners and we all need to be saved, we all need to be rescued by Jesus, right, And then scripture is super important in that as well. But yeah, that's it, learning how to tell your story in God's story. That's great. Well, hey, that is a great discussion on the Great Commission. So hopefully we will see you tomorrow on the Bible. Guys,