Go Therefore — Erlo Stegen

The Great Commission in Matthew 28

I will read from Matthew 28, from verse 16 to the end of the chapter. Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.

And Jesus came 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 of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

I will stop there. The first point I want to speak about is where it says the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. Brethren, there is a place God has appointed for us where he wants us to be.

The Spiritual Mountaintop and God’s Appointed Place

Jesus told the eleven disciples to go to that mountain in Galilee. The life of a Christian must not be down at the bottom, on a low level. In a spiritual sense, our lives must be on the mountaintop. Spiritually, he wants you in a high place.

So I wonder, you who are here today, spiritually, where do you stand? Are you in a high place on the mountaintop, or are you down in the dumps? The Lord Jesus doesn't want you to be down in a low place where you are cold and isolated.

He doesn't even want you to be halfway up in a lukewarm place. He wants you in that place right on the mountaintop. Examine yourself. Are you on fire spiritually? Are you on the mountaintop where your heart is burning and where you are experiencing God's joy?

Or are you just lukewarm or cold? The Lord Jesus doesn't want you to be down at the bottom, on a low level. In a spiritual sense, our lives must be on the mountaintop, or are you down in the dumps? The Lord Jesus doesn't want you to be down in a lukewarm place where you are cold and isolated.

Are you on the mountaintop where your heart is burning and where you are experiencing God's joy? Or are you on the mountaintop where your heart is burning and where you are experiencing God's joy? People that take part in sports or enjoy sports, they look on when they see their team, their athlete or their team, even if it's rugby, whatever it is, or soccer.

If you see your team winning, they rejoice, they are happy. But if their team loses, they are disappointed. The Lord Jesus wants you to be on the mountaintop where your heart is burning and where your heart is experiencing God's joy.

Now in a spiritual sense, are you on that higher place, on the mountaintop? The Lord Jesus doesn't want you to be down at the bottom, or are you down in the dumps? Or are you down in a lukewarm place where your heart is burning and where you are experiencing God's joy?

There's a hymn, a song that goes, Lord lift me up to the mountaintop. Lift me up all ways that I will be climbing upward. Lift me up all ways that I will be climbing upward. It said, when you see me, lift me up all ways that I will be climbing upward.

It said, when you find a Christian in a depressed state, where he's down in the dumps, he's got no joy. He doesn't experience the Lord's joy. He doesn't experience what a calf experiences when it's let out to pasture.

I don't mean that you dance, but know that you experience that joy of the Lord. So when Jesus left them, he said, I will go, but I will come back. I want to find you, meet you there on the mountaintop in Galilee.

This is after he had died, he had been crucified, and then he had been raised from the dead. And that angel came down like lightning from heaven, saying to Mary and to go and tell his disciples about it and saying that they must now go as I had told them to be there at that mountain and I will go ahead and meet them there.

They had locked themselves behind closed doors. They were afraid, they feared for their lives. But Jesus said to them, I don't need you here. I need you there on the mountaintop in Galilee. If you read the Bible, you will see in the Lord explains to us the place that he wants us to be.

Are you in that place where God has taught you and told you where you should be? Woe to you if you are just in any other place and you're not in that place where Jesus has pointed you to be. So the eleven went to that place which Jesus had pointed out to them.

Woe to you if you found in just any other place and not the one Jesus has pointed to you. If you're just in another place, woe to you. You've got to be there where Jesus pointed to. When they got to that place, they saw him and they worshipped him.

Doubt and the Authority of the Risen Christ

When they saw him, they worshipped him, yet some doubted. Why did some doubt about Jesus? The Jews don't just worship anybody and bow down before anyone except God. The eleven, they bowed down before Jesus, they worshipped him.

But some doubted. What did they doubt? Remember when they were in the boat and there was a terrible storm and they thought they were going to sink and then they saw the Lord Jesus approaching, walking on the water, and he stepped into the boat and he quietened the storm.

And his disciples... And there they bowed before him, they worshipped him. They said, who is this that even the storm, the wind, even obeys him? And they worshipped him as God and said, you are God. So even here, they weren't doubting whether it was really Jesus or not.

They didn't think it was a ghost or some other spirit. They realized this is Jesus himself. But even while some were worshipping him, they were doubting. The question is, why were they doubting? What was the doubt?

So often when Jesus met up with people, he revealed what they were thinking. He knew what they were thinking. He sees your thoughts from afar. And he saw their doubt. He saw them worshipping him, but he also saw beyond that into their hearts and he saw the doubt.

And that's when he then said, all power has been given to me in heaven and on earth, all authority. That shows us what the doubt was all about. So when he appeared to them in all his glory, but they were doubting whether all power has really been given to him.

They were asking themselves, is all power really, has all power really been given to him? Are all things possible for him? Is it really so? Someone may... As someone may say, my husband, he will never get converted.

He'll never repent. Or my children, they'll never find the Lord. Or this illness or this situation, this one really is beyond the Lord. It will never happen. And so Jesus saw their doubt, their question mark.

As I saw Jesus, they were still wondering, can it really be that all authority and power has been given to him in heaven and on earth? I wish I could see in your hearts whether there's some doubt in your heart.

Whether there's something that's written in the Bible which you question, which you doubt about. Whether it can really happen. For God, all things are possible. All power is given to him. There's nothing that he cannot do.

He can bring an end to a life, but he can also raise someone that's dead to life again. Then he goes on to say, now therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations. Jesus never sent us just to tell the whole world that he died for us.

The Mission to Make Disciples

And that's why we've got to go. He says, you go because all power is given unto me. That is the reason why we should go, because all power is given to him. And he says, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Baptism Into the Character of God

Now this is not referring to the water baptism. It's a pity when people read the Bible, the scriptures, and they twist it. That you just baptize anybody and say, well, now they've been baptized in this power.

In the Greek it says, go to all the nations. And then it says, you go then and baptize them, not just in, but into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That, as it were, God himself were this pool that you baptize the person into.

Into God himself. Not baptismal water. That's one thing. Here it says, don't baptize. He didn't say, baptize them into the water. He says, baptize them into the name, and into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

This has a deep meaning. For then he says, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. For if you baptize someone and put someone into the Father and into God, then he will keep what he has commanded him.

This isn't a small thing. You can't say just because you've baptized people, you've fulfilled this commission. You've baptized them, but they stand up, they smoke, they drink, they use drugs, they kill each other, they slander, they sin, they're promiscuous.

If you are baptized into God the Father, the very nature, the very character of God, then they become like him. You baptize them into the very nature and character of God, and then you will keep what he has commanded us.

You baptize them. So you teach them, instruct them to observe all things that I have commanded them, and into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You teach them, instruct them to keep what he has commanded you.

That becomes possible because you've been baptized into God himself. You become part of his nature and his character, and he dwells in you, making it possible that you can keep all these things. He says, behold, if you keep all those things, do what I've told you, behold, I will be with you even to the end of the age.

Obedience, Transformation, and the Presence of Christ

Or in other words, that he will be with us right to the end, till he comes to fetch us again. Even you Koreans, if you were baptized into the character of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, then you become like him.

And whatever Jesus has told you to do, you'll do it. But if you haven't been baptized right into him, into his name, the name is symbolic of his character. If you haven't been baptized into the character of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, then you become like him.

If you haven't been baptized into the character of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, then you become like him. And you can tell your child, don't steal, but it will steal. Or tell your child, don't have anything to do with boys, don't mess around with them, don't have relationships, but the child will do it.

But that changes when that child is baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, because then he will keep and the child will keep it. So the Lord Jesus has commanded us to do it.

Hearing and Understanding God’s Word

Now let me ask you, how many people have you taught to keep all that which Jesus has instructed and commanded us? But you can't do it in your own strength. You can only do it in the strength that you get through him to whom all authority and power has been given.

Only the Lord Jesus can make it possible. Do you understand it? Do you hear what God's word is saying? And if you don't understand, then it's because you haven't truly repented. The demons are blocking your ears that you cannot understand.

You don't hear it. So that, I've finished now, I'll stop here. But I hope you've understood. And if you haven't, go, cry to God, and ask God to help you to open your ears and your understanding that you may understand.

Let's bow our heads. Lord, we thank you that we can hear your word. The words you speak, no one speaks like you do. We hear how you instructed your eleven disciples to go to that appointed place. And when they were there, you told them that all power and authority has been given to you.

And for that reason, therefore, they should go and make disciples and teach people to keep your commandments. Amen. If you didn't understand what was said, go to a counsellor and ask for prayer. And say, look, I just don't understand.

When things are spoken, I hear God's word, but it doesn't touch me. I don't hear. I don't understand.