The Proclamation of Jesus’ Death
Matthew 28:16-20
April 21, 2013
Well, this morning we are going to conclude what has been for us
A study that began almost 3 years ago.
We are bringing this wonderful gospel of Matthew to a close.
Matthew has been unwavering in his mission to reveal Jesus
As the Messiah of God, the Savior of the world.
We have seen everything from
• His earthly lineage,
• To His virgin birth,
• To His spectacular coronation,
• To His triumphal entry,
And most recently we have been enjoying a study of the death of Jesus.
And we have broken this section on the death of Jesus
Down into 7 sections.
The Plot
The Purpose
The Participants
The Picture
The Power
The Predicament
And this morning we get to the final point,
Which is THE PROCLAMATION OF JESUS’ DEATH.
By now we know some UNDENIABLE FACTS about the death of Christ
1. We know it was all done according to “the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.”
That is the only way to describe the fact that Jesus would die exactly at the time of the death of the first Passover Lamb, on the only day when the Jews did not want to kill Him.
2. We know that His death was for the purpose of forgiving sinners.
His death was to be a substitutionary death, taking upon Himself the sin of His people.
And that of course has been proven in many ways.
Namely we know that Jesus Christ was TOTALLY INNOCENT.
• That was seen in an arrest without a charge
• That was seen in a trial without proper legalities
• That was seen in ignored verdicts of innocent
• That was seen in false witnesses overcome with remorse
3. And we know that despite being innocent Jesus bore the full wrath of God.
• That is why He received the mocking He received.
• That is why the sky grew dark for three hours
• That is why He was forsaken of His Father
4. And we know that His substitutionary work was successful, namely because He rose from the dead.
We have clearly seen all of those truths
As we have studied the death of Jesus.
In Jesus, we have a Savior.
• One who bore our sin, took our punishment, and satisfied God’s wrath.
• One who presented to God a successful offering and atoned for our iniquity.
• One who rose from the dead and gave hope that His salvation is genuine.
Colossians 1:19-20 “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”
Colossians 2:13-14 “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
We know we have a Savior.
Those truths have been solidified to us.
But there is one more point that Matthew must make.
In fact, the only reason you know anything about the death and resurrection of Jesus is because Matthew obeyed this last point.
Had Matthew failed to practice what He is about to preach, all the glorious realities of Jesus’ substitutionary death would be foreign to you.
And that last point is that those who receive His death
Are under obligation to proclaim His death.
Paul said:
Romans 1:14-17 “I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”
Paul knew that He was obliged to share the gospel.
And this morning, my main hope is that everyone in this place
Who has partaken in the salvation of Jesus
Will realize that this is your obligation as well.
• Proclaiming the death of Jesus is not for a select few.
• Proclaiming the death of Jesus is no merely for vocational ministers.
• Proclaiming the death of Jesus is the required mandate for every single person who calls themselves a follower of Jesus Christ.
In short, it is impossible to be an obedient Christian
If you do not proclaim His death.
John Piper said, “Go, send, or disobey”
Charles Spurgeon went so far as to say, “Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.”
Every believer is called to proclaim His death.
And really, after having seen the brutality that Jesus endured,
Does any of us really have the audacity to sit in our padded pews
And refuse His command?
• Do we have to go back and read about His anguish in the garden again so that we can overcome our fears to go and do what we have been called to do?
• Do we have to go back and read about His arrest so that we can remember that we must also submit ourselves to God’s plan for our lives?
• Do we have to go back to His corrupt trial so that we can remember that we are also are called to give an account before kings and rulers?
• Do we have to go back and witness all the mocking He took, so that we can remember that He deserves all the glory would can give Him?
• Do we have to go back and relive the agony and pain of being crucified, or being rejected by the Father, so that we can remember that whatever it costs us to share the gospel will be far less than it cost Him to create it?
• Do we have to go back and listen again to the testimony of the centurion, or of the women, or of Joseph of Arimathea, so that we can remember that the death of Jesus demands public confession and perceivable conviction?
• Do we have to go back and listen to the chief priests and soldiers spreading a story about how the disciples stole Jesus body so that we will realize that someone must tell the true story?
You get the idea.
How could any of us have spent the last two months studying the details involving Christ’s death and then have the audacity to sit in our pews and tell Him we won’t go?
He did what He was asked, now we must as well.
And that is where Matthew closes his gospel account.
It is commonly called “The Great Commission”
It is the command of Jesus for those on earth who claim to follow Him.
And this morning, I don’t pretend to show you any fancy word pictures,
Or give you any new deep and intriguing details.
I only wish for you to simply see the straightforward command that rests right on the pages of your Bible and then ask you to be who you say you are.
There are three things we see in this text.
#1 THE MESSENGERS
Matthew 28:16-17
Our story picks up of course with the soldiers and the chief priests
In a tremendous state of panic.
• The soldiers are panicking because they lost Jesus.
• The priests are panicking because the One they killed is alive.
And presently in our story Jesus and the disciples
Are their way to meet one another.
Meeting the disciples was very important to Jesus.
Matthew 28:7 “Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.”
Matthew 28:10 “Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me.”
Jesus wanted to make for sure
That He was able to meet with His disciples.
And that is what is about to happen.
(16) “But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated.”
I don’t want to dwell on this, but it will do you good at this point
To remember again exactly who these men were.
They are “the eleven disciples”.
• Of course it is the twelve, minus Judas who had hanged himself.
They have already been identified.
Matthew 10:2-4 “Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him.”
And might I remind you who and what they were?
• Peter, Andrew, James and John were all fishermen.
• Matthew was a despised tax collector
• Simon the Zealot was a terrorist
• “Thaddaeus” was actually named Judas, “Thaddaeus” was a nickname which means “breast baby”
• James and John were hot-heads
• Peter was impulsive
• Andrew was mild mannered
• Thomas was a pessimist
The point is that these men were about ordinary as they come.
We sort of elevate them in our minds to be like scholarly saints
And the reality is they were much more like the cast of
Duck Dynasty than they were like a seminary faculty.
The Pharisees had them rightly pegged.
Acts 4:13 “Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.”
Can anyone else in here identify with those two words?
“uneducated and untrained”?
They weren’t special guys, they were ordinary men,
They would have fit right in with us.
(17) “When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful.”
And this verse just further adds to the type of men they were.
They were sincere in that they “worshiped”,
But they were also human in that they doubted.
I know, everyone assumes that Matthew is talking about Thomas here.
But all of them doubted.
Luke 24:8-11 “And they remembered His words, and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them.”
NOW, WHY DO I TELL YOU THAT?
Because I want you to know the type of people
Who received this command.
Too much emphasis is placed today on the messenger.
• We think if we had big muscles like the power team, then we could be an effective witness…
• We think if we had a cool voice like Adrian Rogers, then we could be an effective witness…
• We think if we had a famous reputation like Kirk Cameron or Tim Tebow, then we could be and effective witness…
That has nothing at all to do with it.
The power is not in the messenger, it is in the message.
2 Corinthians 4:7 “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;”
1 Corinthians 1:26-28 “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,”
The power of evangelism is the cross.
The cross does not need your help.
• You don’t have to adorn the cross…
• You don’t have to come up with new trendy ways of explaining it…
• You don’t have to be better at illustrating it…
JUST PROCLAIM IT
What Jesus did there is the good news that humanity needs to hear.
“He made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
When Jesus entrusted the message to humanity,
All He required was that they know and believe the cross.
Everyone in this room who believes in Jesus is a qualified missionary.
The messengers
#2 THE MASTER
Matthew 28:18
This verse is often omitted when the Great Commission is quoted,
But in reality is absolutely essential.
This verse provides all that we need in way of a motive.
Verse 18 is why we must do verses 19 & 20.
And that is because the Master says so.
“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”
Incidentally, “authority” is a word that Matthew is very fond of.
Matthew 7:29 “for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”
Matthew 9:6 “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” — then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home.”
Matthew 9:8 “But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.”
And those don’t really even count all the events
In which Jesus displayed His authority.
• We have Him calming the sea…
• We have Him casting out demons…
• We have Him removing sicknesses…
• Who could forget the story with Jesus and the centurion…
Beyond that no less than 48 times we hear the same phrase, “I say…”
No modern day prophet would have dare stood on his own authority.
• Over and over in the Old Testament we hear, “Thus saith the Lord”
• And yet Jesus at least 48 times in Matthew’s gospel said, “I say unto you”
The key there is authority.
Beyond that, He just rose from the dead.
I mean, if His death and resurrection
Hasn’t proven to you that He is Lord of all, then nothing will.
Romans 14:9 “For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.”
And here is the implication now to the disciples.
• If creation obeys Him…
• If demons obey Him…
• If angels obey Him…
• If sickness obeys Him….
Then certainly His sworn followers obeying Him should be a no-brainer.
Colossians 1:17-18 “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.”
Evangelism at its core is an obedience issue.
We do it, not because we feel like it, but because He told us to do it.
If He has all authority,
Then it really doesn’t matter what the command is.
Whatever He says, you have to do.
And here is the command.
The Messengers, The Master
#3 THE MISSION
Matthew 28:18-20
And of course we must emphasize the word “therefore”.
That word is the hinge that tells us why we must do this.
Jesus is the Master, He has all authority.
And certainly this command is not new to anyone.
We have heard it over and over.
But this morning let’s make sure we understand it correctly.
• Many today think the command is to “go”
• Or that the command is to “baptize”
• Or that the command is to “teach”
But every one of those statements is secondary to the primary command.
The primary command is to “make disciples”
• Going without making disciples is a vacation.
• Baptizing without making disciples is false religion.
• Teaching without making disciples is merely outward morality.
The call is to “make disciples”
WHAT IS A DISCIPLE?
The simple definition is a learner.
But it is far more than that.
John 8:31 “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;”
There Jesus is distinguishing between a true disciple and a false one.
A true disciple is one who continues in Christ’s word,
Where as a false disciple does not.
This is not speaking about those who do and don’t read their Bible daily.
Rather this is speaking of those who do or don’t walk in obedience.
It links well to what James said:
James 1:22 “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.”
Someone who considers themselves a disciple because they hear or read the word, but doesn’t do what they hear, is self-deceived.
James says they are deluded.
And so we are not going to make hearers.
No, we are trying to produce continual obedience in people’s lives.
Let me give you another statement Jesus made about true disciples.
John 15:8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.”
So how does a person prove to be a true disciple?
By bearing fruit.
We know about fruitless vines.
John 15:2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.”
What did we learn during the parable of the soils?
Only the fruitful vine is genuine.
And this is what we are trying to produce.
We are trying to produce genuine, consistent, obedient, fruit bearing followers of Jesus.
NOW, HOW DO WE DO THAT?
• “Go”
• “Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit”
• “Teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.”
In order to make disciples we must go to them.
We are never commanded to try and draw them to us.
The church is not a place where we are supposed to attract sinners.
Look at the church in the book of Acts, sinners were terrified of it.
Acts 5:12-13 “At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s portico. But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem.”
That story was after Ananias and Saphira died for lying to God.
And the world wanted nothing to do with them.
We must go.
And with going it is implied that
We are taking the message of the cross with us.
Matthew 10:7 “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”
We take the gospel.
And then we call them to submit their lives to the gospel.
That is where baptism comes in.
Baptism is a symbol of salvation.
It pictures the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and by extension of the sinner.
To be baptized is to make a public profession of death to self
And new life in Christ.
So we go to them, we give them the gospel,
We call them to submit their lives to it, and we then baptize them.
We also teach them.
WHAT DO WE TEACH THEM?
The commands of Christ.
We teach them what it means to live like a Christian.
• What sort of spouse they are to be
• What sort of child they are to be
• What sort of parent they are to be
• What sort of boss they are to be
• What sort of employee they are to be
• What sort of neighbor they are to be
• What sort of citizen they are to be
We show them how a Christian lives in the world and tell them to do it.
And when that process is completed, we now have a disciple.
• Not just a hearer
• Not just someone who is baptized
• But someone who has submitted to Christ and is committed to obeying Him.
THIS IS THE GREAT COMMISSION
That is what Jesus commands, and what His death requires.
And then a tremendous promise:
“and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
The power to preach, the power to evangelize, the power to endure;
It all comes from Christ, and He is with us.
But even more than that, it insinuates that we have authority.
Remember what Jesus told Peter after Peter’s confession?
Matthew 16:18-19 “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”
Jesus said it again in chapter 18
After talking about the necessity of church discipline.
Matthew 18:17-18 “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”
WHAT DO THOSE STATEMENTS MEAN?
It simply means that whatever we do here
Is really just a manifestation of what has already been done in heaven.
Jesus was endowing us with authority.
We deliver heaven’s judgments.
We walk with Christ’s authority.
AND THAT IS WHAT JESUS MEANS HERE.
We can tell people to repent to the gospel
Because the Lord of all creation told us we can.
THE AUTHORITATIVE ONE IS WITH US
I mean think about it.
You could even temporarily take out the specifics of the command.
• In verse 18 we have Jesus saying He has all authority.
• In verse 20 we have Jesus saying He will be with us.
Verse 19 could really say anything, and we could do it.
If He had said, “All authority is mine so go fly, and I will be with you”,
Then would could do it.
THE POINT?
• Proclaiming Jesus’ death is not a job for a select few.
• Proclaiming Jesus’ death is not an optional part of Christianity.
• Proclaiming Jesus’ death is not reserved for some who have the knack.
Proclaiming Jesus’ death is a command for every single believer. We must do it because our Lord told us to,
And we can do it because He is with us.
That is what the cross deserves.
That is what the cross demands.
And friends, if Jesus can endure the agonies of hell for you and I,
Certainly we can endure calling of missions for Him.
This is why we are here.
And this is what Christ commands.
It really doesn’t get any clearer than that.
Matthew 28:18-20 “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
