About this sermon
The Great Commission rests on Daniel 7, where one like a son of man receives dominion over all the nations. Throughout Matthew, ‘Son of Man’ marks Jesus’s divine authority, and after his resurrection he declares that all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to him. Satan held the nations through idolatry, and Christ now sends his church to call them out of darkness through baptism and obedience to his commands. As long as some in Sewickley have not heard the gospel, this congregation has work to do.
Sermon transcript
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 observe all that I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Please be seated. Oh, thank you very much. To understand these last few verses of Matthew 28, We must begin with Daniel. Why? The background for Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 through 20 is found in Daniel, in Daniel 7. Why do I say this? There’s no direct quotation from it. The background for Matthew 28 is found in Daniel because of this term, the son of man, Not in these verses, but throughout Matthew.
The term son of man is when you first think about it would seem to emphasize Jesus’s humanity. After all, man, the son of man. Over against the son of God, but that is not the case. Let me just read in quick succession a number of passages In Matthew, which refer to this term, the son of man. We will see that the expression is not one that points, first of all, to his humanity, but rather the opposite to his divinity, to his divine authority as Messiah. Matthew nine, six, he has the authority to forgive sins. But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on Earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, get up, pick up your bed, and go home. He is Lord of the Sabbath, an institution established by God at creation, and yet he is its Lord.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, Matthew 12, 8. Matthew 13, 41, he will send forth his angels in judgment The son of man will send forth his angels. They will gather out of his kingdom all the stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness. And he will throw them into the furnace of fire. And in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 1627, send forth, he sends forth angels and judges men. For the son of man is going to come in the glory of his father with his angels, and he will then repay every man according to his deed. Deeds, plural. It looks as if I lost a page. I’m sorry. Anyway, the same verses continue on and on. Over and over again, we read that the Son of Man is the one who has divine authority.
He is the one who judges. All judgment and power are his. He comes in glory. And he is coming again in glory. So where does this come from? It comes from Daniel chapter 7, verses 13 and 14. Once again, I kept looking in the night visions and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man was coming. And he came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away. And his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. This is the background for Jesus’s declaration. Here, when he says. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, in other words, The vision which Daniel saw of the Son of Man presented to God, the Ancient of Days, that vision has been fulfilled.
Jesus has been crowned as king over heaven and over earth. And yet that throne is not on earth, but it is in heaven. Daniel, according to the first part of Daniel 7, It reveals that he saw this vision while Israel was in exile in Babylon. He saw four beasts representing four kingdoms from Babylon through Rome, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and then Rome. The Lord showed Israel that before the Son of Man would begin to rule for God, the first Babylon and then the other three kingdoms must arise. Accordingly, we read in history of those kingdoms. But finally, God himself, whom Daniel calls the Ancient of Days, will appoint his ruler. In Daniel 7, verse 13, we read, he came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. This is the picture of the coronation of a king.
According to verse 14, To him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom that all the peoples and nations and men of every language might serve him. And so his authority will be not only over Israel. But over all the nations of the world. Verse 14 goes on, his dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away. So this kingdom and this king will be eternal. It’s a kingdom that will never come to an end. And again, that coronation will be in heaven itself. So although he is to rule over all the nations on earth, his throne is in heaven. So he will be ruling from heaven over all the nations of the earth. Some Jewish and liberal students of the Bible have tried to argue that this son of man in Daniel seven is actually the saints of God.
But that doesn’t fit the context. In the prior context, there are four beasts that represent four different kingdoms and four different kings, the four beasts whose dominion God has taken away, according to verse 12, are clearly identified as four kings in verse 17. These great beasts are four in number, and they are four kings who will arise from the earth, we read in verse 17. Their dominion is given to the one like a son of man who is crowned as king. Thus, although the saints of God join him in rule, the one The one like a son of man to whom is given dominion and glory and a kingdom so that all the peoples and nations and languages should serve him is best understood not as a corporate hymn referring to all the saints, but as another king, one who is a divinely appointed king, one who is promised to the saints on earth, but who shall rule alongside of God in heaven.
Furthermore, The saints remain on earth, but the crowned king, the son of man, has his throne in heaven. The coronation of the son of man does not bring opposition to an end. According to Daniel 7, verse 21, not all will serve the Lord. Some will rather attack the saints of God who are on earth. I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints,” Daniel 7.21. But eventually the saints of God, we are promised, will gain victory. Verse 27. The sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the highest one and his kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all the dominions will serve and obey him. Jesus’s declaration in Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20, must be understood as a declaration of the fulfillment of this vision in Daniel seven.
Jesus has appeared as he speaks to his eleven remaining apostles, Jesus has appeared before the heavenly throne, he has been granted all authority by the Ancient of Days, as he says in Matthew, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Jesus is announcing that the final phase of God’s plan has begun. The son of man, the king of heaven and earth, has taken his throne and begun to rule. Heretofore, Satan had ruled over the nations since the time of Adam’s fall, and in particular, since the time of Babel. The nations had remained under his thumb, primarily through idolatry and polytheism. And so we see the devil’s claim, which was true, made in Luke chapter four. The devil led Jesus up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
The devil said to him, I will give you all this domain and all its glory, for it has been handed to me. and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you worship before me, it shall be yours.” By dying on the cross in place of his people, the Son of Man destroyed the rule of Satan. He paid the ransom for the sins of his people. He purchased for himself a people, saints from every tribe and tongue and nation. Thus, Just as Jesus began to reveal to his disciples several months before Passover, before his death, before coming in glory as king to judge, he must first die. From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem. He must suffer many things and the elders and chief priests and scribes from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and he must be killed and be raised on the third day.
Matthew 16, 27. Although Jesus told Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world, he tells us to pray that God’s kingdom would come to and in this world. Its otherworldly character is not unreal or nebulous. It is something which comes. It is something into which one must enter by the narrow gate, something for which the apostles were granted keys, authority to open and to shut that door. It is something from which they were commanded to put out unrepentant sinners. Thus, the kingdom, though heavenly, is very real. It is visible on Earth, distinguishable from the world. Those who have not entered it or have been put out of it. But this. Jesus has, in fact, begun to reign from heaven, both on earth and in heaven, his resurrection and his ascension marked the beginning of his reign, just as predicted in Daniel seven, his authority is absolute.
But as is also predicted in Daniel 7, not all submit to that absolute authority, not all submit to his reign. Many remain a part of the nations of this world under Satan, outside of the kingdom of Christ. Yet Christ is making his disciples. He is making for himself subjects, or as Daniel labels them, the saints of the Most High. He is delivering those who, along with their forefathers, had been deceived by Satan for millennia. Our passage in Matthew 28 verses 18 to 20 is the commissioning of the first evangelists, the apostles, with the power and the authority to call men, both Jews and pagans, out of the kingdom of darkness and into the discipleship of King Jesus. Those who receive baptism and obedience to the commands of Christ become the saints of God, of Daniel 7.
Of course, the main thing to be a subject of the Son of Man is to obey him. to follow his commandments. But that obedience begins by receiving baptism. And despite the fact that many in Japan, to avoid persecution and much worse persecution in many other countries around the world, despite the fact that many would wish that baptism was an option, it is not. If you are submitting to Jesus, the command is to be baptized and to observe all that Jesus has commanded. So obedience begins by receiving baptism. It’s no coincidence that many in Japan want salvation without it. They want the benefits of citizenship in heaven, forgiveness, eternal life. To become children of God. But they want that without the dangers of openly display displaying their heavenly citizenship and allegiance with Christ. Many of you probably don’t have that problem.
But for those who do, we ought to remember that there is nothing to fear, nothing to fear in Christ. The real dangers to anyone, whether it’s in China, whether it’s in a Muslim country, whether it’s in Japan or here in the United States, the real dangers are outside of the kingdom, not inside. You, those who do not serve Christ, are already serving a far more onerous master, Satan. There is no middle ground. There is no third alternative. In Daniel’s vision, the saints of God are overpowered for a time. And we experience that, do we not? They’re overpowered for a time. Chapter 7, verse 27 reads, Then the sovereignty, dominion and greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole of heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the highest one. It’s already ours.
His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all the dominions will serve and obey him. That is the way it ends, but for a time they are overpowered. Take your stand with Christ, submit to him. If you have not received baptism, if you have, learn to obey and to keep all of his commands. But this commission did not come to an end with the death of the apostles, the apostles whom Christ himself had commissioned. The Apostle Paul reminds Timothy of his duty to obey it, to keep the commandment, as he calls it. i.e., to keep this what we call the Great Commission. I read from 1 Timothy 6, verse 13. I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the proper time.
He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. At his ordination, the commandment from Christ to his apostles became Timothy’s duty as well. The vision of Daniel 7, of Christ and his saints doing battle, suffering, but ultimately overcoming the demonic opposition, is fulfilled by those who likewise are charged to keep that commandment, to keep what 2 Peter 3, verse 2, calls the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. A few verses earlier, it is clear that the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles becomes the personal duty of each of the teachers of the word, ministers, if you will, upon their ordination.
This is true even for those teachers, according to 2 Peter 2. This is true even for those teachers who later apostatize. Second Peter two, verse one. Speaks as follows about those apostate false teachers. There will be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. A little bit later in the chapter, he goes on to say this about those false teachers ordination by which they were bound to the Great Commission. labeled the holy commandment. Peter writes, it would have been better for them, for those false teachers, never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. Reading from the ESV. The heinousness, the heinousness of the sin of those false teachers is not only their personal apostasy, but also and especially in their using their commission.
To seek to destroy the saints of Christ by gross deception and error. The Great Commission making the nations into disciples for Jesus was to the apostles. The heart of their calling. the heart of their purpose and the heart of our purpose as the church militant here on Earth. Looking to the end of Luke’s gospel, our Lord places that commission to disciple the nations right alongside of his death and his resurrection as the summary of the teaching of the Old Testament. Luke 28, 24, verse 44 through 47. All things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms, i.e. the Old Testament, all things which are written about me must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, thus, it is written.
In other words, this is the message of the Old Testament. Thus, it is written that Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead on the third day and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. The Great Commission. In other words, the teaching of the Old Testament is summarized in three points, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ on the third day and the making the nation’s disciples for Jesus. Well, it is ordained ministers whose duty it is directly, as Paul tells Timothy, to keep the commandment. The Apostle Peter goes on to command as follows to the entire church, all of us. that you should remember the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. Second Peter three to ESV, that you should remember the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.
That’s for all of us, all of us are to remember, he doesn’t just mean, well, just remember, memorize it once and then you’ve got it. You know, he’s talking about it. Governing us, ruling us. It should be in our blood. It should be in our prayers. It should be in our giving. It must be on our hearts. We must pray for it. We must give for it. And above all, consider yourselves or your children sending your sons to a mission field at home or abroad. Furthermore, it’s not just out there. As the Apostle Paul is prepared to go on first to Rome and then on to Spain, he leaves behind his work in Asia Minor and in the Grecian Peninsula. And when he does, he could say this in all honesty to the Roman Church.
He writes to the Roman Church in chapter 15, I no longer have any room for work in these regions. An amazing statement. I no longer have any room for work in these regions. And since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain. And I hope to be helped on my journey there once I have enjoyed your company for a while. Chapter 15, verses 23, 24. As long as some here in Sewickley and in the surrounding communities that you reach and where you live. As long as some here have not heard the gospel, this congregation has its work to do. Remembering the commandment of the Lord and Savior and through your preacher, keeping the commandment to baptize and disciple the people of this community.
It was a joy to hear that you are planning an outreach concert, anything to get people in and hearing the gospel without a preacher, they cannot be saved. And that is why we are here. It really is. Let us pray. Our father and our God, we give thanks that the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of man, the king of kings, David’s greater son, remains seated at your right hand, but not at rest. He continues to intercede for us and for your people in every town, every community, every nation under heaven. He intercedes for his people. We ask, O Lord, that he would continue to do so for us, that we might not be devoured in this battle with the evil one and with his minions, with the remnants of those terrible beasts through whom Satan ruled long ago and continues to do so.
We ask that you would be pleased to pour out your blessing upon this congregation and its attempts to reach out into the community of Sewickley and Osborne and Coriopolis and the other areas around. Grant, O Lord, that many would come to hear the gospel and be saved. We ask your blessing, especially on the preaching of your word through Pastor Willauer. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. Let us continue our worship with hymn number 226 from the Blue Trinity Hymnal. Rejoice, the Lord is King.
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