Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth.
19 sermons cite this verse
What is his work? Because it said that the pastor's job is to equip ministers to be able to find out if they're God's people and to do his work. So what's his work? Matthew chapter 28 verse 18. This is Jesus talking to his disciples before he ascends to heaven. He says, Jesus came and told his disciples, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. So he's the man. He can say this. Therefore, the one instruction that I want to give to all my ministers is to go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. these new disciples to obey all my commands that I have given you and be sure of this one thing. I am with you even to the end of the age. Do y'all know that when you're a minister of Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter if it's SARS, if it's Ebola, if it's COVID-19, when you're a minister and you're going out and you're telling people about the good news of Jesus Christ, he says, I will be with you to the end of the age. Somebody needs to get excited about that right now because you've been walking in fear. And God says, why are you walking in fear? I'm with you. …
… son. He sees you and me as sons and daughters in the sun. Think about it. We're talking about Jesus saying, I am with you. God in the flesh, the one with all authority in heaven and on earth. If that's true, Christian, if the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth is with you, then you are free from worry in this world. You are free from discouragement in this world. You are free from discontentment in this world. You are free from the idolatry of work and approval and applause and comfort and control and anything else this world offers you. You are free from all fear. You are free from fear of anything in this world, including death itself. Why? Because his perfect love casts out all fear. Because his perfect love frees you from all worry, all discouragement, all discontentment. His perfect love cast it all. Listen to this one, John 15, 9. Another verse I'm breathing in and out every morning. Jesus says, as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. …
… we call it the Great Commission, Jesus says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. And apparently this is the moment when it dawned on Jesus in some new kind of fresh way that all authority, imagine that all authority has been given to him, has been placed in his hands and that he had come from God, had come forth from God and he was going back to God. All authority over all things. It's the picture, it's like God the Father said, here are the keys and I'm going back inside. Do with them what you will. Here's all power and all authority, hands off. Do with it what you will. And the very next move he makes, it's not even a break in the sentence structure. It's like as soon as that dawned on him, he got up from supper and he laid aside his rabbinic robe his outer garments and he took a towel and he wrapped it around his waist and they panic it's like he wait he's about to wash our feet and then they realized they a servant never showed up a slave never showed up to wash feet and they never considered washing each other's feet in that culture a rabbi who had disciples disciples did a lot of things for the rabbi. They never washed their feet. Only a servant or a slave washed anybody's feet. It was as low as you could possibly go. And Jesus is about to wash their feet …
… but some doubted. And then Jesus said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, go, movement, go. Therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I've commanded you. And behold, I will be with you. Do not be afraid. I will be with you till the very end of the age. You say, well, did the disciples go and tell? Well, we're talking about it 2,000 years later in Montana? Yes, they did. Yes, they did. Died deaths because of it, because that's how much they believed in it, but told so many people, who told so many people, who told so many people, the war is over, the war is over. They were so excited. The enemy had been defeated. Death had been conquered. I'm not going to live like I'm still in the war. maybe tonight for the first time, you haven't just heard the message, but you're receiving the message. …
… That's what Jesus said at the end of the gospel. In Matthew 28, he said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Okay, that's worth just taking note of right there. We're not just listening to some wise teacher. We're listening to the one who says, I have all authority in heaven. I have all authority on earth. That's been given to me. Therefore, go. There's our word. Go where? To all nations. To do what? To make disciples. How do we do that? Well, baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. So what's the plan to go? Where are we supposed to go? To all the nations. What are we supposed to do to make disciples? How do you make disciples? You see people saved, you baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and you teach them everything that God has taught you, and lo, surely. …
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. May you have a seat. So one, I would say this, one of the many gifts of the TV show, The Chosen, is I, I mean, kind of humanizing the apostles and that sense of just the way in which the apostles, at a moment like this, at a moment like the ascension, would have just been so confused and just kind of utterly, I imagine, imagine being one of the apostles, one of the disciples who is standing there and you watch Jesus go and you're just like standing there with your mouth open. He just flew away. and then you're like, what now? What do we do now? That's why God had to send a couple of angels. Like, why are you still sending it with their mouths open? But that's the question, like, what do we do now? But also a bigger question, not a bigger question, but another question. Not just what now, but why? like why the ascension? Like why does Jesus have to leave? …
… Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And then here's the important part for tonight. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. There's the answer. Jesus gives us the answer to the question, where is Jesus? us. He's with us. He is with us always. However, our second text, Acts chapter 1, verse 6, when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father is fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. And then while they were gazing into heaven, as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? …
… mountain where the risen Christ was speaking to his disciples he said this and this is how Matthew records he says Jesus came near and spoke to them I've received all authority in heaven and on earth right so he's claiming I am the king of kings my father has given me all authority on heaven and earth therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you. These verses are known as the Great Commission. So Jesus is giving his disciples, and not just his disciples, all of his followers for all generations would come after them, this mission, this commission. And I love this. These two words summarize the rest of it. Therefore, go. Therefore, go. In seminary, you're taught that whenever you find a therefore in scripture, you need to find out what it's there for. And in this case, the risen Christ is saying, I have authority and I'm giving it to you. …
… Matthew 28 is where we have what has affectionately been called the Great Commission. Jesus came, verse 18, Matthew 28, verse 18. Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Stop right there. Jesus is now, if you're unfamiliar with the story, this placement in Scripture. He is raised from the dead. he is now meeting with his disciples to commission them. As we've stated many times through the last few years, our authority comes in the commissioning. Our power comes in the encounter. We need both power and authority to do what he's called us to do. Power comes in the encounter. Authority comes in our yes to his mission. It's the commissioning. so here Jesus says all power has been given to me all authority has been given to me the very fact that he would make that statement here he is emphasizing the fact that he in this moment is identifying himself as the son of man because God never lost his authority God never lost his authority. …
… listen to this. Jesus came to them and said, what only a king can say. How did we miss this? All authority, in heaven and on earth has been given to me. This is kingspeak. Here's why I say that. Authority wrapped up in an individual. No committees, no voting, no Congress, no debating, no let's find out what everybody thinks. See, in a kingdom, the word of the king is law. And Jesus positions himself as a king. and he says, all authority, not just here, all authority in heaven and on earth, that's all the authority, period, has been given by my Father to me. To which some of the guys in the group thought, okay, so now we're gonna retake Jerusalem. Jesus is like, no, it's way bigger than that. Gentlemen, we're gonna retake the whole world and not by force, not by the failed methods of the kingdoms of men that just will go round and round, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. …
… Moses needed to hear. It's all the reassurance that we need as well, that the Lord, he goes with us. He goes before us. Matthew 28, verse 18 through 20, the great commission. And Jesus came and spoke to them, his disciples, 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 of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all the things that I have commanded you. And praise God it doesn't stop right there. Because if it stopped right there, then we might rightfully feel insecure. But it doesn't. Jesus goes on to say, And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. Even to the end of the world itself, he is with us in what he has called us to do. And now we're not going to get into them in great detail because of the amount of time we have left. …
Jesus stands there and he makes this extraordinarily large claim. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Who would say such a thing? Within the context of the first century world, there was only one person who could claim authority over a piece of real estate or over a kingdom, and that's the king. This is king language. And he says to this ragtag group of people who are fearing for their lives, now they're outlaws, they're gonna be hunted down. Several of them will be martyred soon, the rest probably later. And he says to them, I have authority over heaven, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Who would say such a thing? Not somebody who's just a sin forgiver or a rabbi or a teacher or a comforter or a good example, only a king, God's final king, who owes us nothing. and gave us everything. He's the king who can be trusted with everything because he's the good king who can be trusted with everything without fear because he's the king who came not to ask us to give our lives for him but came to give his life for us and turned everything upside down. …
… Say it out loud with me if you know it. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. That sounds global. Thank you. He says it to us every single week. It's the foundation of the church. Go and make disciples of all nations. And the word there for nations is ethne. So it's not countries like we think of the 200 or so geopolitical entities we might call nations today. This is ethnic groups. This is people groups, tribes, language groups, like the Uyghurs of China or the Berber of Morocco or the Pashtun of Afghanistan or the Fulani of Nigeria, West Africa, along with, depending on how you differentiate them, as best as we can tell, between 11 and 17,000 other ethnic groups in the world. And Jesus has told us, tells us every week to go and lead people to life in all of them. It's what we looked at last week when Jesus told all of his followers in Acts 1.8, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. …
… Second, making disciples is our mission. when you get to Matthew chapter 28 verse 16 through 20 the passage we just read in the original language of the New Testament there is only one imperative verb in this passage just to remind you just in case school's been a while you don't remember the imperative verb an imperative is a command when my wife Heather gives me an imperative that's a command do it right then or should do it right then in this passage there's one imperative verb one command around which this whole thing revolves It's one word in the Greek. It's two words here in the English. It's make disciples. It's make disciples. And some translations even have go and teach all nations, which really, it's a completely different word than what we see later with teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. So we need to make sure to separate the two. Make disciples of all nations. That is the mission that I'm giving you, Jesus says. …
So first, the biblical statement of the all-nations charge. Jesus said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I've have taught you, and behold, I'm going to be with you always to the end. that global authority to presume to tell us, to tell every other religion to become Christian, that global authority, that total authority of Jesus over the nations was obtained in a peculiar way, namely by blood. Revelation 5, 9. Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, you were slaughtered, and by your blood you ransomed people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom, priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. He bought them, and the you is go get them. Amazing. There isn't a greater enterprise anywhere in the world. …
… Birmingham for His glory. When we give ourselves to His plan, He's promised, He's given His full sponsorship behind it. Matthew chapter 28, verse 18, before we get into the Great Commission, he says, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. And the good news is that authority now lives in you. So we cannot sit here this morning and say, I can't be his representative because I'm not able to do it. You are more than able to do it. That is a lie from the adversary. You have every single thing you need to represent the character of God to the world around you. The question is, are we going to step up and take responsibility to display that character to them. And this is where we realize it makes complete sense now. We know our culture. We know the thousands of churches in Birmingham alone. And we know that this world is longing to see a demonstration of Christ that accompanies our explanation of Christ. …
… And then Matthew 28 commission. Jesus says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I'm with you to the end of the age. So two commissions, and there are two aspects to these commissions. There's a witness, a word aspect, and then there's a disciple-making aspect. Witness is empowered by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us to tell other people about Jesus and his gospel. We witness to what we've seen and heard and experienced. We tell others about him with a view to them knowing him, trusting him, believing him, following him like we do. But then there's this other part in Matthew 28. There's not just the baptism part, conversion, baptism, name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There's also this teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. …
… He came to them and he said, can you just read these first line with me? All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Let's read that again. all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me all authority is his and the very next word he says is a verb if you take out the therefore all authority in heaven all of the power of heaven and all the power on earth which isn't that much compared with all the power in heaven has been given to me. Go and make disciples of all nations. He explains what that means. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey everything I've commanded you. And I'm gonna be with you the whole way. Don't worry. But the operative mission is go make disciples of everybody on the planet. And what he's implying is I have all this authority Now I'm sending you in my authority. …
… sticking with. All right. So Matthew 28, we're going to read a few verses here. So let's just get going. All right. Matthew 28, verse 18. Jesus came 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 of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. I just remember a story of an old-timer that wouldn't fly in airplanes. He just refused to fly. Somebody said, hey, if it's your time to go, it's your time to go. And he says, I don't mind going when it's my time to go. I just don't want to be on the plane when it's the pilot's time to go. That made sense to me. He says, well, you should fly because God's with you. …