The Enthronement (3 of 3)

“Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””

— Matthew 28:18–20 (NET)

The structure of the Great Commission is: authority, therefore commission, with a promise.

The Authority

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Not some authority. Not authority in the spiritual realm. Not authority in the church. All authority. In heaven and on earth. The commission that follows flows from that authority. The disciples are not going in their own name or their own strength into a world that is neutral ground. They are going in the name of the One who holds all authority over the world they are entering. The territory belongs to the King. The commission is to occupy it in His name.

The Commission

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.” The single imperative in the Greek text of Matthew 28:19 is “make disciples” — mathetēsate. Go, baptize, and teach are participles — the manner in which the disciple-making happens. Go as you are going. Baptize as you are making. Teach as you are forming. But the command itself, the imperative, is make disciples. Not make converts. Not make attendees. Not make admirers. Make disciples — people who follow fully, who are learning to obey everything He commanded, who are being formed into the image of the One in whose name they were baptized.

Teaching them to obey everything I commanded — this phrase is the connection back to Part Three of this volume. The Sermon on the Mount, the Upper Room Discourse, the Kingdom parables, the Verily statements of Part One — all of it is the content of the “everything I commanded” that the disciple-making commission is designed to transmit. Volume I of this handbook is the soldier’s formation. Volume II is the son’s understanding. The Great Commission requires both, and the teaching of both is the ongoing mission of the church until the King returns to complete it.

The Promise

“Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” The disciples heard this in the shadow of the Ascension. They were about to watch Jesus leave. He had just told them He was departing. And the last words He speaks to them before the Ascension are not instructions for the organizational structure of the church. They are a promise: I am with you always.

The disciples heard John 14:18 in the Upper Room: “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” The Great Commission’s closing promise is the fulfillment of that word. He is going to the Father. He is sending the Spirit. He is returning at the end of the age. And in the entire period between the Ascension and the Return — which is the period in which every disciple since the first century has lived — the promise is: I am with you. Always. Not sometimes. Not when you are faithfully completing the commission. Always. To the very end of the age.

This promise is the foundation on which the soldier stands in every battle Volume I described. The spiritual warfare of Category D. The cultural engagement of Category E. The prayer authority of Part Seven. The radical discipleship of Category A. None of it is done alone. None of it is done in the King’s absence. It is all done in the presence of the One who holds all authority in heaven and on earth and who said: I am with you always.

That is enough.