April 25, 2025 | Be God's Family
Jesus Gives the Great Commission
Scripture: Matthew 28:16-20(NIV)
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Devotional
One of my favorite memories from grade school is flashcards. Times tables, vocabulary words, states and capitals: if they made it onto a flashcard, I considered the test aced!
When Jesus was about to ascend into heaven, he left his disciples a flashcard of sorts. If you look at the verbs of the Great Commission in verses 19 and 20, you see: Go, Baptize and Teach.
Many years later, I find myself teaching Sr. High Sunday School classes and I can't stop myself from sharing "flashcards" with my students. There are several, but the Gospel in four words: (Jesus in my place) and, of course, the Great Commission are the ones I return to again and again.
"Go" is the action we "comfortable Christians" too easily ignore. It is so easy to sit in church and listen to an uplifting sermon and then go home unaffected, unchanged and spiritually inactive. Jesus' commands us to get out there and share His message.
In the early church, the first thing new believers did was to get baptized. I teach my Sr. High Sunday School students that they should NOT read "baptize" here as a dunking in water, so much as introducing someone who does not know Jesus to Him. Inviting friends to Youth Group or asking a National Honor Society friend to earn their volunteer hours by playing Bingo with you with Hamilton Trace residents qualifies.
"Teach" is the most loaded word for my students. They've spent all week in school and they are not looking for more. I tell them to view "teach," in this context, as reinforcing fellow believers. Your church family may know Jesus, but we tend to get rusty. You can help others understand God's Word, serve together and just be there for your Christian friends when they are down.
Two thousand years ago, Jesus called his disciples into His mission by giving them the Great Commission. Today, He extends that call you. How will you go, baptize and teach?
Poem
Get Yourself Up!
Psalm 99
Great is the Lord in Zion; he is exalted over all the nations. Let them praise your great and awesome name— he is holy. He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud; they kept his statutes and the decrees he gave them. Lord our God, you answered them; you were to Israel a forgiving God, though you punished their misdeeds. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy.
Psalm 99: 2-3, 7-9
Get yourself up
High on the mountain
See the nations
Lift your hands
Be engulfed in the clouds
Receive God’s word
Stand with the Holy
Ascend to your task
