For many years, the main Bible reading that has been offered which directs us to be witnesses and even more, evangelists, and the one that brings many people a great amount of guilt is Matthew 28:19-20. For our purposes, we will begin with verse sixteen and take a closer look at what God actually tells us. Perhaps if we get a better understanding of what God actually says, we might have our guilt eased, and we might even be more excited in what we get to do.
“16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age’” (Matthew 28:16-20).
So what does this text really tell us? First, it is rather interesting and should give us great comfort to know that these eleven apostles who had been with Jesus watching Him perform miracles, casting out demons, healing, controlling the weather and the like, those closest to Him worshiped but “some doubted.” Certainly we need not be ashamed or feel guilt when we have difficulties with our own faith.
Next, notice what Jesus does first. He tells us that He has all authority and infers that He is giving that authority to His apostles and to us. This giving of authority means that when someone asks who gives us the authority to speak for God, we can answer that Jesus does. What great joy, comfort and now confidence we can have in being a witness because we have the example of the apostles and the authority of Jesus.
3 of 52 © Rev. Dr. Ronald A. Bogs (2018)
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