And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
I'm going to take an approach to this verse somewhat different than the one I normally do. Normally I would harp on the lordship of Christ over all of life, especially politics (a most-worthy topic), but today I want to discuss another side of what this lordship really means.
Jesus tells his disciples that He has been given all authority in Heaven and on Earth. I think we commonly focus on only one of these two factors. Some people don't recognize the significance of Jesus's authority on Earth. Some people overlook the impact of Christ's impact authority over Heaven. Christ tells His disciples these words as an encouragement. He gives it as a guarantee that their mission will be a success. They will be successful evangelists. And why? Because the heart-changing God is the missions director. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:6, he planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God gave life to the seed and made it grow.
The fact that Jesus has been given all authority in Heaven guarantees that Jesus has all authority on Earth as well. Certainly He who is at the helm of the universe holds governance over this one small planet! Our work on this Earth is backed by the fact that Jesus, the one in Heaven interceding for us, is the Lord of the Earth. Jesus is our King, and we are told to covert others to His Kingdom. Jesus's Kingdom is spiritual, but spiritual things, if they are truly spiritual, will impact the society and culture around them. But that isn't what I'm trying to get at today.
We are called to be warriors. These words uttered by our Lord are battle orders. The Scripture tells us, however, that we are night fighting an earthly type of war (even though it is most definitely on the Earth). We are not fighting with weapons made of physical matter, taking physical lives. The Israelites were commanded to wage holy war as part of God's punishment on evil nations, but we simply have no such order. Holy war is not the goal of the Christian Church. The Crusades were misguided, to say the least. Spiritual warfare is our duty, however. We are to combat the forces of evil. We are to take dominion over lives that were once ruled by Satanic forces, and we are to do so in the name of Christ, our heart-conquering King. That is the concept Jesus confers in the word "disciples". Disciples are students. They are followers. They are citizens of a Kingdom. They are warriors. Discipleship should be like a never-ending spiritual bootcamp!
Jesus tells us what this training should involve: "...all that I have commanded you." That's pretty broad. As Jesus gave creedance to the Old Testament Scriptures and promised His Spirit would guide the Apostles, we can safely assume that would include all of the Scripture.
Jesus solidified the command by promising that He would accompany His people on their journeys. We read in John that this would be in the form of His Spirit. The Church is the age of the Spirit. Jesus is inside of us, guiding us and loving us and illuminating us.
As a total aside...where do we find the idea that only pastors or elders can baptize (or give communion...or marry people)? This is a common belief, but one I have begun to question, or at least seek to substantiate. Perhaps one would say that Jesus gave this command to baptize to the Apostles, who would in turn ordained other men. That sounds alot like Apostolic succession, which is a Catholic belief we broke from in the Reformation. We retained their reverence of the clergy, however. The anabaptists did not, which is about the only thing they got right. I see nothing in any of the New Testament (or the Old), that would make me think baptism is transferrable only by pastors. I welcome any comments in this regard. I am honestly searching for an answer.
I'm going to take an approach to this verse somewhat different than the one I normally do. Normally I would harp on the lordship of Christ over all of life, especially politics (a most-worthy topic), but today I want to discuss another side of what this lordship really means.
Jesus tells his disciples that He has been given all authority in Heaven and on Earth. I think we commonly focus on only one of these two factors. Some people don't recognize the significance of Jesus's authority on Earth. Some people overlook the impact of Christ's impact authority over Heaven. Christ tells His disciples these words as an encouragement. He gives it as a guarantee that their mission will be a success. They will be successful evangelists. And why? Because the heart-changing God is the missions director. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:6, he planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God gave life to the seed and made it grow.
The fact that Jesus has been given all authority in Heaven guarantees that Jesus has all authority on Earth as well. Certainly He who is at the helm of the universe holds governance over this one small planet! Our work on this Earth is backed by the fact that Jesus, the one in Heaven interceding for us, is the Lord of the Earth. Jesus is our King, and we are told to covert others to His Kingdom. Jesus's Kingdom is spiritual, but spiritual things, if they are truly spiritual, will impact the society and culture around them. But that isn't what I'm trying to get at today.
We are called to be warriors. These words uttered by our Lord are battle orders. The Scripture tells us, however, that we are night fighting an earthly type of war (even though it is most definitely on the Earth). We are not fighting with weapons made of physical matter, taking physical lives. The Israelites were commanded to wage holy war as part of God's punishment on evil nations, but we simply have no such order. Holy war is not the goal of the Christian Church. The Crusades were misguided, to say the least. Spiritual warfare is our duty, however. We are to combat the forces of evil. We are to take dominion over lives that were once ruled by Satanic forces, and we are to do so in the name of Christ, our heart-conquering King. That is the concept Jesus confers in the word "disciples". Disciples are students. They are followers. They are citizens of a Kingdom. They are warriors. Discipleship should be like a never-ending spiritual bootcamp!
Jesus tells us what this training should involve: "...all that I have commanded you." That's pretty broad. As Jesus gave creedance to the Old Testament Scriptures and promised His Spirit would guide the Apostles, we can safely assume that would include all of the Scripture.
Jesus solidified the command by promising that He would accompany His people on their journeys. We read in John that this would be in the form of His Spirit. The Church is the age of the Spirit. Jesus is inside of us, guiding us and loving us and illuminating us.
As a total aside...where do we find the idea that only pastors or elders can baptize (or give communion...or marry people)? This is a common belief, but one I have begun to question, or at least seek to substantiate. Perhaps one would say that Jesus gave this command to baptize to the Apostles, who would in turn ordained other men. That sounds alot like Apostolic succession, which is a Catholic belief we broke from in the Reformation. We retained their reverence of the clergy, however. The anabaptists did not, which is about the only thing they got right. I see nothing in any of the New Testament (or the Old), that would make me think baptism is transferrable only by pastors. I welcome any comments in this regard. I am honestly searching for an answer.
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