Sermon26-16 Mt28 Guide

Matthew 28:16-20 theme verse Matthew 28:19

The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.

In this eleventh Sunday of the year 2026, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. Last week, through Matthew 7, we learned that we have not only to believe in Him, but also that our faith should be expressed in deeds. Yet, this week, we would like to look at Great Commission in Matthew 28 together.

1)    As we know already, the Gospel of Matthew is structured to interspersed five discourses between six narratives and its themes are the kingdom of God which was inaugurated by the Messiah and the disciples who are to inherit that Kingdom, grounded in the redemptive history of the Bible.

To elaborate it more, when God created this world as an expression of His infinite excellence and glory, He established a Kingdom in which we human beings were intended to live in accordance with His will, enjoying eternal bliss in His grace, love, and presence, while giving thanks to Him and worshipping Him.

However, our ancestors, Adam and Eve, succumbed to the serpent's temptation, rebelled to God's will by eating the forbidden fruit so that they became totally corrupted. Consequently, they were not only estranged from spiritual communion with God but also were fallen into state that they could neither give God thanks nor glorify Him. But more sadly, due to their total depravity and inability, human beings were rendered incapable of extricating themselves from this wretched predicament on their own.

Therefore, God opened a new path through which we might attain His righteousness, I mean, a path of atonement through His only begotten Son so that anyone who believes in Jesus can be saved and receive eternal life.

In this graceful salvation, God regenerates the heart, allowing one to understand the Gospel and to be healed, and also empowers one to live a life that glorifies God by doing His will, while enjoying His presence, to give thanks and worship Him. Indeed, this very way of life is what we call the life of a disciple.

So as concluding his Gospel, Matthew wrote that our Lord, having received all authority over the Kingdom of God, commanded that “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Triune God, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

2)    From today’s text, we would like to learn few lessons by reflecting a few points of the Great Commission.

The first point we would like to examine together is that the Great Commission contains five verbs, but only one of them is an active imperative verb, I mean, μαθητεύω (matheteuo) translated as "make disciples.”

In other words, all the remaining three verbs such as "go," "baptize," and "teach” are participles which modify the main verb, "make disciples." This implies that, the Great commission commands that in order to make disciples of all nations, His followers have first "go" to all nations and furthermore, once they make disciples, they have to be baptized them in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and then have to be taught to observe all that Jesus has commanded them.

And also, the verb "to observe" as an infinitive modifies the verb "teach," so that it refers that teaching should be conducted for new disciples to obey to the teachings.

And furthermore, the baptism here carries two significant meanings. I mean, first, it signifies that through union with the Lord, His disciples were crucified alongside Him so that their "old selves" were nailed to the cross, died and were buried with Him and also that, when we rise again after being immersed in water during baptism, we thereby participate in the Lord's resurrection.

And then second, baptism signifies that the one has now become a member of His church as the Apostle Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 12:13 that "For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit."

3)    Furthermore, it is said that disciple is the one who receives teaching to observe all that the Lord has commanded.”

With this commandment we can know that His disciple is not merely someone who possesses knowledge in head only, but rather the one who actively puts into practice what they have learned in their daily life, because the verb "to observe" here as an infinitive modifys the participle "to teach," so that we can translate this as "teach them to observe.”

Therefore, teaching in our discipleship implies

first, a knowledge that is not merely intellectual, residing solely in the head, rather the knowledge that is embraced by the heart and actively lived out in daily life. That’s why I think that the modern Christianity who has the tendency to focus too much on the intellectual knowledge needs repentance.

Secondly, this discipleship training needs to stimulate His disciples to exercise them in their life and also receive disciplines of their errors.

And finally, third, through this very process, this "living knowledge” can transform the lives of those around the believers through the witness of the believer's own transformed life.

Thus, this commandment can be understood as total discipleship training that after commencing with the acquisition of knowledge yet ultimately it aims at the holistic transformation of the believer's entire life through their active obedience and also transforms others’ life.

4)    And also, I think we need to investigate the meaning of four adjective “pas* (πᾶς)” translated as "all” in verses 18–20, which appear in the statement, "All authority has been given to me"; in the command, "Make disciples of all nations"; in the instruction, "Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you"; and finally, in the promise that He will be with you "always” which is literally in all days.

Here, the Lord’s declaration that He has received "all authority” which means “universal authority”, in other words, sovereignty over the entire cosmos serves as the foundation for His commandment to make His disciples among all nations, I mean, the universal discipleship.

And the instruction to "teach them to observe all that I have commanded you" signifies the total discipleship for the holistic transformation as we examined just moments ago.

And finally, His promise to be with His disciples "always”, literally, in all days reflect His name “Immanuel” and also this very presence of the Lord can be understood that it makes this entire journey of discipleship possible.

5)    To summarize it so far, becoming a disciple of the Lord can be understood as follows: I mean,

first, it means following Jesus. In other words, just as Jesus proclaimed, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," following Him demands "repentance”, and to be ready for a fundamental reorientation of one's perspective, life value, attitudes on life and one's way of living (Matt 4:17).

Second, it signifies that disciples are those who respond to Jesus' call to remain with Him at any cost and to participate in His ministry. As we can see in the case of Simon and Andrew, disciples are called to a radical commitment to Jesus; by staying with Him, they learn the essentials in order to lead others toward the Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed.

And third, becoming a disciple of Jesus can be defined as being a person who listens attentively to His words and learns His teachings.

In this manner, through the narratives of the disciples, Matthew vividly illustrates these three facets of discipleship: following Jesus as He proclaims and embodies the Kingdom of God; responding to His call to remain in His presence and participate in His ministry; and listening to His words in order to learn from Him.

6)    Furthermore, in today’s text, our Lord teaches us the enablers for this radical discipleship. I mean, He proclaims before sending out His disciples, as a crucial prelude that He has received all authority from God.

Through this proclamation which stands as the fulfillment of the prophecy in Daniel 7:13–14 that “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a Son of Man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages ​​should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed,” this signifies that Jesus had received comprehensive Sovereignty over new order He inaugurated, I mean, the kingdom of God where the reign of God is fully realized.

Thus, as the One who possesses such universal and sovereign authority now declares that He not only sends His disciples forth as agents of a mission to proclaim the Gospel to every nation but also His authority enables them to successfully fulfill that mission.

7)    And also, in verse 20 after entrusting His disciples with the Great Commission, Jesus also declared that “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

This signifies that the Lord’s presence serves as the very power that enables His disciples to fulfill the Great Commission entrusted to them.

That’s why indeed, when the Lord first called and appointed the twelve disciples, He said that His primary purpose was that they might be with Him.

Therefore, I believe that we as disciples of the Lord have first to come to Him, learn from Him, and draw strength from Him; only then should we go out into the world to make disciples for the Lord.

8)    By the way, in today’s text, Matthew provided a very significant point.

I mean, in verses 16 and 17, we can see that the disciples who heard from Mary Magdalene and the other Mary who had encountered the risen Lord that He had indeed risen and that they would see Him in Galilee, proceeded to a specific mountain in Galilee as directed by Jesus; and there, it is said that they beheld Him and even offered Him worship.

Yet, after that it is said that even among them, there were still some who doubted. And nevertheless, I mean, despite their doubts, it is said that the Lord approached them and entrusted them with the Great Commission.

From this, we can learn that the fulfillment of a disciple’s mission does not hinge solely on the strength of disciple’s own faith; rather, it only dependent on the authority of the Lord and His presence with His disciples.

I mean, when we move forward in obedience to His calling even with our shortcoming, by taking His yoke and following Him, He will make our faith grow, even to the point where they were ultimately prepared to face martyrdom.

9)    As such, as we are invited to His rule and presence, after being transformed in mind, to be His disciples, we start to live His will and grow in His image. Therefore, I hope we may glorify Him as we give praise and gratitude to God, while we take His mission in joy, after being invited into this glorious mission.

Key Questions as Small Group Activity

Q1 Through today’s text, we became to know that to be Jesus’ disciple means that after being transformed through the death of old self and being born of new self through the unioin with Christ, we have to grow in the knowledge of God after being taught to take His mission to proclaim His kingdom. So after reflecting our life and checking where we are now in the way to follow Him, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Q2 And also, we became to know that this life as His disciples is only possible through His reign and presence. So after reflecting our life and checking whether He reigns our life with presence, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Love you. Thank you. God bless you.

Prayer Note

Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!

Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or  even during the week )

Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!

Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),

please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized   ).

I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon                                    )

Please help me to live in that (  learned way of life                                                )

I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.