Amen. Please remain standing for the reading of God's holy, inspired, infallible, and inerrant word. Our sermon text this morning is from Matthew chapter 28, verses 16 through 20. We finish Matthew today. But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. 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 keep all that I commanded you. And behold, I am with you always. even to the end of the age. Amen and amen. May the Lord bless the reading of his word. You may be seated. O Lord, our Lord, everything that you do is great, for you are great. You are the great God who has created all things. We have fallen greatly from your favor. Yet you gave your son to give a great exchange. A glorious exchange, a mysterious exchange. Our sins upon Christ and Christ's righteousness upon all who believe. And you call all whom you have chosen to believe through your word and through our actions in this world, this too is a great mystery. And it is all for the great end of honoring and glorifying you and you alone. Above all else, you have given us the great commandment to love, to love you, to love you supremely and to love our neighbor as ourselves. You have given us the great commission to make disciples who know you, who love you, who honor you, who obey you as much as they can in this world by your grace, in your strength, and to your glory. These are great mysteries to us. We pray that you would make them known to us through your word. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Once again, we get to behold. Behold the promise of Jesus being with us. Behold God himself. Not in any form or image, but in his character and in his glory, for he is with us even to the end of the age. So behold, God builds his kingdom and his church as he makes disciples of all nations through us, his disciples. So we'll look at this passage as in Galilee, in heaven and on earth, and unto the end of the age. Three different prepositional phrases. We have seen our great God in Christ in this book of Matthew. He was born, born of a virgin, fully man, fully God. It was through him that peace was given to all upon whom his favor rests. It was through him that the Magi found exceedingly great joy. He was the one in whom the Father was greatly pleased and is greatly pleased. He is the one who declares to us the heart of the law, that if you do these things, you will live. He also declares to us, and we should readily realize that we cannot keep the law. but that he has kept it for us and that the law will not pass away. He is the one who declares to us what is just and right and true. We have seen our great fall in all the other characters. We have seen hard-hearted and demon-possessed sinners turn to Christ. We have seen hard-hearted and self-righteous sinners turn to Christ. We have seen weak followers who blindly and repeatedly deny the word of the Lord turn to Christ. We have seen people from the fickle crowd constantly tossed back and forth by every wind of doctrine at every fad of the day Turn to Christ. God can and has and does pluck his people out of any and every circumstance. There is hope for anyone and everyone. So let us make disciples. We have seen the great exchange on the cross. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus cried. Jesus was cut off from the covenantal favorable presence of the Father, that we might be united with the Father in covenantal favor. He was cursed that we might be blessed. He died that we might live. We have seen his great call go forth from his ministry. At the beginning it was, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And when he commissioned the disciples, as you go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent, believe. And finally, at the end of Matthew, go make disciples, baptizing and teaching, because I have all power and because I am with you covenantally. And we will look forward to his great end, the end of the age. That is really the beginning. The beginning of all eternity together with God. So in verse 16, we see that the disciples have traversed from Jerusalem back to Galilee. Galilee, where Jesus was He had performed most of his ministry. He was tempted in the wilderness, comforted by angels. He cast out demons. And these disciples, these are the ones who were taught how to believe exactly what Jesus taught. They were the ones who needed to proclaim who the master is and what he has done. They went, they proceeded. This is the same proceeding as in the Great Commission. Going, wherever you go, whatever you see, whatever you do, make disciples, call people to know and to love and to worship our one true God. They went to the mountain that Jesus had designated. We're not sure which one this exactly is, but it could have been the mountain on which he gave the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5 through 7 could also be the mountain on which he was manifested in great glory through the Father. Together with Moses and Elijah and Peter, James, and John, could be a completely different mountain. We're not told. But it was on this mountain, and it is on mountains throughout Matthew, that we get great teachings from the Sermon on the Mountain, Matthew 5 through 7, to the Olivet Discourse about the end of the age and the end of Jerusalem and the temple. And here we get the Great Commission All these things happen geographically on the top of a mountain. What's significant about a mountain? Well, it's conceivably or geographically closer to God. God always descends out of heaven. God, it's a connection point between heaven and earth. live on top of mountains, but God often takes us to the tops of mountains to create a connection between us and him that we might take him into the valleys where we live and move and have our being and where his people are. and as he was taken from us, so he will return. Not only was this a great mountain where Jesus gave the command, but it was also a mountain that Jesus had called the disciples to, and they went and obeyed, and they went exactly where he told them. It's good to go where God tells you to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him. Oh, to see the resurrected Lord. We will see him one day. Whether that day is the day that he calls us home or the day that he returns, we will see him. We will see Him in all His glory. We will see Him for who He is. Oh, what a glorious day that we get to behold our God and our Savior and our King. There will come a day when we get to finally and ultimately obey the command to behold. We will see God and we will fall down and worship Him. Just like the women after the resurrection, the disciples fall down and worship Him. They ascribe worth due to His name. There is no one who is worthy of our praise and our glory and our adoration as God is. There is no one like our God. There is no one who has always existed. There is no one who has the power of life in himself. There is no one who has created something out of nothing by the power of His spoken word. There is no one to whom loyalty and obeisance is owed like our God. Why? Because He is whole. He is good. He is just. He is right. He is true. And to give Him such loyalty and worship and obeisance is our joy. Our delight. It is our delight. It is what we were designed for. To give him glory. But next we are told some doubted him. How in the world could anyone doubt him? They knew he had died. They knew that he had gone into the tomb. They knew that he had been raised from the tomb. He was standing right there in front of them. How could they doubt? The same way we do. We see the world around us, we see the trees and the grass and the flowers. We see the sun, the moon and the stars. We see all that God has created. We see that it is good and orderly. We see that it is to be enjoyed and that it can be enjoyed. We see that there is nothing that we can do to extend our lives beyond a single moment that He has declared. We have seen all that God has done. He has revealed Himself both in this world and through His Word. How can we doubt God? A veil remains over our faces. For only in Christ is that veil taken away. When we worry and fret over how much time we have left in this world, or how much money we are making, or shaking our heads at the bad decisions that we make, or our friends make, or our leaders make. When we wonder if we've done enough good to earn God's favor, if we think that we can do no wrong, If we fail to stand firm in Christ, if we fail to believe His every word, when we place anything between ourselves and God, when we think, how can we know? Or how can God know? All these things are doubts and worries and fears. May God wash them away. So proceed to where he has sent you. That might even be right where you are. But go, wherever you go. Know that he has made his calling sure. We will not always be on top of mountains, but God will see you through to the end. So see him and worship him and doubt him not, for he forgives, he leads, he encourages, he enables, he guides, he changes our direction. He wants us to look at him, to behold him, to see him, and when we see him, to love him. To love him more each and every moment. For the disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain that Jesus had directed them. Next we see that Jesus is everywhere, both in heaven and on earth. Jesus says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Jesus approached them. just as the women had approached Jesus after the resurrection. So Jesus now approaches the disciples. What could he have said? He could easily have said, you deserve death. You deserted me. You abandoned me. And even now, some of you are doubting me. You do not understand me. I'm looking especially at you, Peter. You tried to stop me from going to the cross. You deserve my wrath. But he spoke, the ever-living one, who has revealed himself through words, who creates through words. He spoke. second person of the Trinity who is the Word, the Word who was with God and who was God and who is God and who always will be God. The Word who spoke the universe into existence in order to reveal the glory of the Father, to die, to rise again, to find his sheep through his disciples. He says that all authority has been given to me. Now this has been given, causes us a bit of a conundrum. Isn't Jesus equal with the Father? Yes, yes indeed He is. They are equal in being and power and glory. So how does Jesus receive authority? The Father gives authority to the Son. It is clear both in this passage and in 1 Corinthians 15. Well, the distinction is that according to being, Jesus is one with the Father. But according to role, Jesus receives authority from the Father. And now he has been, because he has fulfilled the law, because he has done exactly what the Father has set before him, because he has been raised from the dead as a vindication to demonstrate and to show that he lived a perfect life. He now has all authority from the Father in heaven and on earth. All. What does this all mean? It means All. It means every political authority is subject to him. It means every parental authority is subject to him. It means every business authority is subject to him. It means that every star, every galaxy, every planet is under his authority. This also means that those who are in rebellion against his authority will one day face a terrible judgment. So let us call people out of that judgment and into submission to God's authority. This heaven and earth is a marathon. It covers everything, literally everything. So even though it seems as though the authorities in our world are working against God, that they are not in submission to him, do not lose heart. Do not lose sight of the fact that God is over his creation. And he will one day judge those who are in rebellion against him, unless they repent. Therefore, therefore what? Because of this reality, because of this indicative, therefore we have an imperative. But the imperative is not what we would expect based upon our English translation. Go. The imperative is to make disciples. To make disciples who are the ones who know exactly what Jesus has said. It takes a long time to learn everything that Jesus has said. It takes a long time to learn all the commandments, but thankfully he has given us a summation of the commandments, to love God and to love neighbor. Upon these two commandments hang all the rest of the law and the prophets. Now what it is to love God and to love neighbor is borne out and it is defined at many times and in various ways throughout all of Scripture. But the standard is the Scriptures. So these disciples must know all that Jesus has taught. They must know exactly what He wants them to do. And they must proclaim who he is, exactly who he is, from his word. So we're to make disciples of who? Of all the nations, all the ethnicities throughout all the world. Revelation chapter 7 gives us a vision of what it is of the 144,000 who are before the throne. It's an innumerable multitude from every tongue and tribe and nation bowing down before the Lord, casting their crowns of rewards before him at his feet, knowing and acknowledging that they do not deserve to be in his presence without being consumed. Now, how do we make disciples of all the nations? Well, first, we've got to go to the nations Going. Going and proceeding as we go throughout this world, no matter where we go, no matter with whom we interact, no matter what we do. Proclaim Christ. Sow seeds. Find those lost sheep whom God is calling to himself. We have to go. We are the instruments of reconciliation and there is no other plan. Baptizing. What is it to baptize? What does baptism mean? Baptism represents lots of different things. All at once. It represents cleansing, being cleansed from our sins. It represents being made alive in Christ, being raised again from the dead to a new and living hope. Baptism means that we are beginning to be disciples. Baptism represents, it's a physical representation of what happens when God makes us alive by grace through faith. Baptizing into what? Into the name, into the name that is above all other names, Yahweh. I am that I am. That is my name. That is the name by which Israel shall know Me. I am One. But I also am the Father. I am the Father who gives life. Who gives life to the Son. I have granted the Son to have life within Himself. which is a strange concept. But the Father and the Son, together, with the Holy Spirit, form the Godhead. Three persons, one being, one name. The Father is Yahweh, the Son is Yahweh, the Holy Spirit is Yahweh. baptizing them into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. These three persons are one being. And this is a great and glorious mystery for which we will eternally be praising and worshiping and in awe of God for. To be baptized into the name of God is a significant thing. It means that you are marked to be a disciple. It means that you have the responsibility to learn from Him and to bear His name. And if you do not bear this name, that is significant as well. It is to betray God Himself. It is to presume upon His patience and kindness. So, if you were baptized, live like it. Live from the life that he gives you. Live in the covenant he has established with you. And the third part is simple. Going and baptizing and teaching. This is how you make disciples. You go to them, you find them. You proclaim the gospel. You baptize those who want to become disciples. Then you teach them. Teach them what? The barren animal? No. Teach them all that I have commanded you. All means all. Supremely, to repent and believe. and supremely to love. Faith, hope, love. These three remain, but the greatest of these is love. We need to observe these commandments, to keep them, to keep guard over, to keep hold on, to reserve them. We need to remind ourselves of them. We do not readily think of these commandments. We need constantly to be thinking of what it is to love God and to love neighbor. All his commands, to repent, to believe, and to love. To repent of our rebellion, to believe. Faith is relying upon God to keep his promises, to justify in the presence. Hope is relying upon God to keep his promises to glorify in the future. And love is enjoying and glorifying God forever. Faith and hope will one day pass away, but love remains. Eternally loving God, putting nothing between you and God, creating no image to worship, taking this family name seriously, resting in God, submitting to all authority that God places over us in the Lord, keeping as many human beings alive as we possibly can, keeping covenantal faithfulness with the spouse whom God has given you as representative of the covenantal faithfulness that he establishes with his people. respecting private ownership and property, being just in all testimony, not wanting to do any harm in any way to any neighbor. So rejoice that he has all authority in heaven and on earth. Rejoice that he enables us to do all his biddings. As the gospel has moved from Galilee throughout the Middle East, throughout Europe and Africa and Asia, to North America. The Gospel has grown and gone forth, though sometimes it feels obscured, whether through prosperity or through persecution. The Gospel goes. His disciples go. His people grow. It's just the nature of what he has promised. And as it goes from Galilee, we know that he is in heaven and on earth. Not only is it from location to location, it's also from time to time, even unto the end of the age. And behold, Matthew's final behold. Behold I. Behold me, Jesus says. Look at me. I am with you. I'm giving you a promise. I am with you. What is it for God to be with us? these promises were extended to Abraham. And Yahweh said to Abram, go forth from your land and from your kin and from your father's house to the land which I will show you. And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great. And so you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. And again, in Genesis 15, after these things, the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision saying, do not fear, Abram. I am a shield to you. Your reward shall be very great. God promises provision, people, protection, a place to Abraham. And he promises these same things to all who are in Christ and ultimately in Christ. And we get to see these things in the New Jerusalem. I'm with you always. How long? All the days. Every single day. It's not as though he forgets his promise for 24 hours. Every single day of every single year. God keeps his promise. of uniting himself to us. Until, until when? Until the end of the age. Which age? Some people think that the age that he's talking about and the age that was spoken of in Matthew 24 and 25 was the age of the Jews and that the age came to an end in AD 70. Now, there's a certain sense in which the destruction of Jerusalem was a significant historical event. Absolutely. Absolutely true. The end of the age of sacrifices came about at that day, at that time, and in that day. But the end of the age that Jesus is talking about is the end of this world as we know it. This is the great end that scripture speaks of. The end of the world. We do not know when it will be. It could be in the next five minutes, could be in the next five years, could be in the next 5,000 years. We don't know. But what we do know is that God will be with us. Jesus has promised to be with us. With all who love and believe in him. With all who are in this new covenant. Until the day comes when they will not teach again each man his neighbor, and each man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh, for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares Yahweh. For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin. I will remember no more. What a great promise. What an amazing hope to hold on to. Our sins will be remembered no more. all our failings, all the times we fall short that we're aware of, and all the times that we're not aware of, of falling short of his glory. We owe God a debt we can never repay. Oh, to grace, how great a debtor. But he will always be the captain of our ship. He will always be the king over this world. doing one of two things with its subjects, storing up his wrath against the rebels and preparing a place for his saints together with him for all eternity. So remember the promises God has made to his people. Remember the covenant that he has cut. Remember that he has fulfilled the terms of the covenant on our behalf because we could not. Rest in what he has accomplished. And from that rest and reliance, move forward. Go, proclaim, believe, love, teach, obey. Go forward with what he has for you. So worship him and do not doubt this one true God. He takes away all your sins. He takes away all your longing for sins. He has all authority in heaven and on earth. He enables us to make disciples by going and baptizing and teaching. He will never break covenant with us. In all places and at all times, God is with us. He builds his kingdom as he makes disciples of all nations through us. What a glorious hope. Let us pray. Our Father and our God, we come before you and we thank you that you have established these things, that we might remember you, that we might know you, that we might love you, that we might follow you, that we might be your disciples and that we might make disciples of those around us. Let us not be content to let others slip and slide away from you. Let us stand firm and in love, call people to repentance and faith and hope and love and joy in you, glorifying you and you alone. For you and you alone are worthy of all our worship and our praise. in our adoration and our joy. We pray that you would accomplish all these things and so much more by your grace, for your glory, and in your