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Matthew 28:16-20 (NIV) Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
It’s Jesus’s authority in his resurrection, He has overcome death and as the second person of the Godhead He has the authority to tell his disciples to go. So let me ask you this question, what fuels our mission? The power of the risen Christ has defeated the powers of death and has brought His people into right relationship with Him.
One of the early church fathers had this to say about Jesus’s authority over death:
“Death has become like a tyrant who has been completely conquered by the legitimate monarch; bound hand and foot the passers-by sneer at him, hitting him and abusing him, no longer afraid of his cruelty and rage, because of the king who has conquered him. So has death been conquered and branded for what it is by the Savior on the cross. It is bound hand and foot, all who are in Christ trample it as they pass and as witnesses to Him deride it, scoffing and saying, ‘O Death, where is thy victory? O Grave, where is thy sting?’” (Athanasius, On the Incarnation, published by St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church, 5.27, http://www.copticchurch.net/topics/theology/incarnation_st_athanasius.pdf).
Let’s think about this for a moment. Jesus has all authority before His death and resurrection. But there is something different about Him what is it?
I mentioned it in passing yesterday, but let’s listen to the prophet Isaiah tell us.
Isaiah 53:1-6 (NIV) Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
What I want us to understand is this, that section where Isaiah speaks of the punishment that brought us peace, that is a particularly important statement. It’s only after the punishment was complete, that Christ could bring us such complete peace, shalom aleichem.
Those are the very words Christ said, shalom aleichem which really means safety, rest, wholeness, completion, soundness….all so much more than simply peace or the absence of conflict. And now it’s different all because of the sacrifice He made. And all of that is the blessing Jesus gave His disciples then and what He gives us now. And we have a part in that same blessing. Our part is to know Jesus so intimately that His resurrection power lives in us and through us.
Charles Spurgeon, speaking about the Great Commission says this about the presence of Christ:
“They have their commission, here is the seal to it; here is the source of their power; here is the society in which they are to work: ‘Lo, I am with you always.’ God grant that you and I, going forth to teach for Christ. may always have the sound of our Master’s feet with us, even to the end of the world! Amen” (Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible,” Matthew 28:4, https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/spe/matthew-28.html. 2011).
It is the presence of the risen Christ that gives nearness to the believer in his or her going. And it is the risen Christ Who empowers the believer to go down the street or across the world to spread the Good News.
When we experience the risen Jesus we have no choice but to go. Honestly, when we allow the Good News to invade our hearts and lives there truly is no other response but to be discipled by Him and make disciples of others.
Have you experienced the risen Jesus, more than simply knowing the stories. It’s like the meme I shared on Facebook a couple weeks ago:
“A Disciple is someone who has moved from being the recipient of the Church’s mission to being responsible for the Church’s mission.”
And that’s the difference between knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus – and going in His resurrection power.