(Fourth in a series.)
And 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.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
The Lord Jesus began His commission with the words, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” Then, after declaring His authority, He commissioned His Disciples to carry out a series of commands.
The first command is “Go.” They are not to hunker down amidst the hatred following the recent murder of Jesus there in Judea, hoping it will all pass without them being noticed. Rather, they are to “go.”
Jesus clarifies the purpose of their going by His additional commands. He has all authority in heaven and on earth, so His disciples are to go—but go to do what?
Go and “make disciples.” Jesus commands them to “make disciples” for Him. They are to go out and extend His authority by making Him more disciples.
Make disciples for Jesus? How do we know they weren’t to go out and make disciples for themselves?
Well come on, everyone knows Jesus was telling them to make Christian disciples. They were to make disciples of Jesus. It’s obvious. Jesus was sending them out to build His Church. No one’s ever thought Jesus was sending His Apostles out to get disciples for themselves.
Well if that’s so clear to us, do we remember what motivated the Jews in their demands that Gentiles in the new Christian church get circumcised? Opposing the circumcision, what was the Apostle Paul’s warning concerning the Judaizers who were demanding it?
They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them. (Galatians 4:17)
Right away in the new Christian Church, men turned away from being disciples of Christ and became disciples of other men. The Judaizers were working hard to get the Gentiles to forget Jesus and become their disciples. Calvin comments:
This stratagem is frequently resorted to by all the ministers of Satan. By producing in the people a dislike of their pastor, they hope afterwards to draw them to themselves; and, having disposed of the rival, to obtain quiet possession. A careful and judicious examination of their conduct will discover that in this way they always begin.1
Albert Barnes observes the same:
the false teachers made a show of zeal toward the Galatians, or professed affection for them in order to gain them as their followers. They were full of ardor, and professed an extraordinary concern for their welfare—as people always do who are demagogues, or who seek to gain proselytes.
A couple chapters later in his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul writes:
For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh. (Galatians 6:13)
Calvin again:
Paul therefore declares that they are not acting the part of honest men, and that they have no other object in enjoining circumcision than to boast to the Jews of the converts they have made.
“Followers.” “Proselytes.” “Converts.”
Something important here should hit us hard. Living in the Western world where influencers are king, more than almost any prior generation of men we ought to be on guard against the very thing we refuse to think reading the Great Commission ever so piously. It would have been easy and quite seductive for the Apostles to grow their own kingdoms rather than the Kingdom of God; to piggyback on their association with Jesus the past three years, using that association to get disciples for themselves, and then to building a network of churches where they showed up periodically to milk their own Christian disciples for book sales and conference registrations. They could preach there on special occasions, leaving with the offering given in support of their “mission” work.
Their “mission” work fulfilling their Lord’s Great Commission by availing themselves of His glory in order to promote their own.
This was what the Judaizers did, as the Apostle Paul pointed out. The contest over circumcision was a contest between the glory of God and the glory of man, the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of man, the supreme superiority of the people of God, the Jews, and the filth and bloody cleansing needed by the dirty goyim. Ethnos.
Never take for granted that our Lord’s Apostles were true shepherds who obeyed our Lord’s command that they make disciples—not for themselves, but for Him. Then give God glory and be thankful to Him for choosing faithful men to “Go and make disciples.”
Otherwise we who are goyim would never have heard the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and our greatest hope would remain the pathetic kingdoms of man led by bombastic egotists whose highest desire is to make themselves forevermore popular with all the simpletons who know nothing of Jesus Christ and His kingdom.
Dad used to warn Christians wanting to follow this or that Christian celebrity pastor that real leaders never cultivate their acolytes’ dependence, but seek as soon as possible to make anyone tempted in that direction to cling to the Lord—not the Lord’s servant.
The conservative religious world here in America today is filled with charlatans who split men (particularly young fathers) off from Christ and His Church and Her pastors and elders, appealing to them, instead, to become their disciples. Their message is perfectly suited to their audience. That’s what they excel at—scratching ears precisely where they itch. That’s why people surround themselves with these men.
But note how following these charlatans makes us feel better about ourselves. Notice how it confirms our prejudices. Notice how it reinforces our anger. Notice how it spreads like wildfire across socials. Here in the United States of America, it is a cancer that, during and since Covid, has metastasized.
These hucksters never stop building their own kingdom. They are never building the Kingdom of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Oh, they are incessant in telling everyone that it’s all about building the glory and fighting for the Kingdom of Jesus.
It’s not.
Recently a woman sent me an email claiming a friend of mine had asked her to send it to me. Glancing at it, she was pitching to me a video she wanted me to watch made by my friend, so I watched and was disgusted and saddened—both. I could tell you his scheme for getting me to join him and send him my money, but who cares? It’s always the same. To give him money is to build the Kingdom of Jesus.
Some years back, our congregation was facing the legal confiscation of our parsonage, sanctuary, new Christian Ed wing, fellowship hall, parking lot, baptismal fonts crafted by our grandfathers, banners crafted by our children, pews, mature oak trees, side yard, kitchen, computer, copier, and bank accounts. We were voting to leave our apostate denomination which, at the time, was seeking to officially normalize sodomy and fornication; and this after they had already officially normalized the slaughter of little babies.
The denomination said we couldn’t vote to leave, and if we did, they would kick us all out of our church-house and parsonage, and change all the locks.
Should we pull in our horns and just stay put, content to do our own sort-of Evangelical thing out there in rural America? Or maybe we should take them to court and fight them to hold on to what was rightfully ours?
But no, we were agreed. We would not fight them. Why not?
The Sunday before the Monday when the Presbyterian Church (USA) changed all the locks on the church and manse, and we all had to find a new home, I preached on Hebrews 10:32-34:
But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.
The date was Sunday, September 15, 1991, and the sermon was titled, “You Joyfully Accepted the Confiscation of Your Property,” and during the sermon I explained our departure with this quote:
Shun the Priests, but Pay Them Willingly
But one thing I adjure thee, for the sake of God in heaven and all that is holy, shun the priests, shun them, those abominable men whose livelihood it is to prevent thee from so much as becoming aware of what Christianity is, and who thereby would transform thee, befuddled by galimatias2 and optical illusion, into what they understand by a true Christian, a paid member of the State Church, or the National Church, or whatever they prefer to call it. Shun them.
But take heed to pay them willingly and promptly what money they should have. With those whom one despises, one on no account should have money differences, lest it might perhaps be said that it was to get out of paying them one avoided them. No, pay them double, in order that thy disagreement with them may be thoroughly clear: that what concerns them does not concern thee at all, namely, money; and on the contrary, that what does not concern them concerns thee infinitely, namely, Christianity.3
Jesus did not commission His Apostles to make disciples for themselves. Our Lord commanded them to make disciples for Him, and this is our command still today. We are nothing. He is everything.
