Today I am thinking more about The Great Commission. Oftentimes we neglect the last portion of the verses here in Matthew 28. However, when thoughtfully considered they serve as a bit of a convicting encouragement. Notice how the verses end:
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 “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 observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
Do you see what the Savior promises? He will be with us always, even until the end of the age. Isn’t this great!? Isn’t that troubling?
This statement by Jesus is convicting. Jesus promises to be with us always. This makes me want to do evangelism because he is there with me. I fear that I am too often like the teenager in the mall who is quite embarrassed by the possibility of being seen with their parents and so therefore walks twenty feet in front of them. How perverted is it to be embarrassed by my Savior?
I don’t want to hide Jesus. I don’t want to be ashamed of the gospel. After all, Christ is the only way in which anyone can be forgiven. Furthermore, the proclamation of his gospel is a chief means by which God receives glory. Suddenly in my modeling of this embarrassment of my Savior and his gospel I am looking a lot like someone who loves himself at the expense of the glory and person of God, the Savior, and my neighbor. Swallowing this pill is even more painful when I remember that it is this Jesus who bled and died in the place of sinners like me and my neighbor.
This statement by Jesus is also encouraging. I understand that his abiding presence with me is a consolation and encouragement in persecution. When I am mocked and refused he is there with me; for it is truly him that they are mocking and refusing. Therefore, his abiding presence with me serves to encourage and console my oft-discouraged heart.
Truly the promised presence of Christ is a convicting encouragement for us in evangelism; let us boast only in the cross, for the glory and pleasure of God. And may this come at the expense of our pride and, if need be, comfort.
But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Galatians 6:14)