Matthew 19

Chapter 19. The Mediatorial KingThen Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)The manifestation of the Lord Jesus here recorded was, in some respects, the most remarkable of all His appearings during the 40 days. It was the only one by special appointment, the others being merely incidental and mostly unexpected. This He had arranged for even before His crucifixion, saying to His disciples, “But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee” (Matthew 26:32); and this had been the message of the angel to the women on the morning of His resurrection: “Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you” (Matthew 28:7). This also was the direct message of Christ Himself as He first met the women returning from the sepulcher: “Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me” (Matthew 28:10). The Meeting in Galilee This, then, had been the special appointment for His great meeting with all His disciples; and it seems a little strange, in view of the urgency and emphasis with which the message had been given, that they were so slow in obeying it, and in meeting their appointment with Him. They tarried in the neighborhood of Jerusalem at least eight days after the resurrection, for there were certainly two Sabbaths in immediate succession in which He appeared to them there. Were they waiting for Thomas to join their number, or were they needlessly tardy in beginning their journey? Perhaps the cause of the delay was in order that all the disciples might receive the message and have time to attend the solemn convocation. The place appointed we are not told; it was a mountain in Galilee. It could scarcely be Mount Hermon, the Mount of Transfiguration, for that would be more remote and difficult of access than was necessary. It may have been the same mountain where the sermon of Matthew 5-8 was delivered, the famous Horns of Hattin, where He had first proclaimed the principles of His kingdom to the world. It is probable that the 500 brethren, of whom Paul speaks in the 15th chapter of First Corinthians as having all seen Him at once, were the persons present at this gathering. They formed the surviving few who still remained faithful after the tragedy of the crucifixion. His Appearing At length they have come together and are waiting for His appearing. It was the first great missionary convention that the world ever held, and it is most remarkable that the only appointment that Jesus made with His disciples after the resurrection was a missionary one. What a solemn emphasis it gives to the great commission and the glorious work of evangelizing the world, to fully realize the dignity with which Christ has invested this great occasion! At length they were assembled, and the Lord appeared in their midst. His coming to them seems to have differed in the form of its manifestation from any of His previous appearings. The Greek word, translated “came to them” (Matthew 28:18), has a special shade of meaning, implying the gradual approach—“He came toward them,” becoming visible at first at some distance and majestically coming nearer, until at length He stood before them, coming down, perhaps, from the lofty mountaintop which rose above their heads. His appearance was impressive enough to throw most of them upon their faces in adoring reverence; yet there were some, even here, who doubted His identity. His Message Then He addressed to them His great and important message, containing: first, the claim of His kingly power and prerogatives; secondly, His great commission to them to go forth and establish His kingdom among all nations; and thirdly, the promise of His presence through all the days until the end of the age. Let us realize, as we dwell upon these three great themes, that this was not a message to the Eleven but to all the disciples of Jesus Christ, to all the days until the end of the age. For the company He had in His mind’s eye must have included all that gathered around Him and would take up His commands even unto the end of the age of which He spoke.

Section I: the Royal Proclamation

Section I—the Royal Proclamation"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" (Matthew 28:18). This is really the manifesto of our King, in assuming His mediatorial throne. In declaring that all power is given to Him in heaven and on earth, He does not refer to His primeval deity and His divine rights, but to that special kingdom and authority given to Him in the eternal covenant of redemption on account of His finished work. It is something that has now been given to Him; it is the throne of the Mediator which He assumes at the Father’s right hand, for the purpose of accomplishing the great work of redemption, for which He has already suffered and died. It is that of which He declared, “the Father… has entrusted all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22). “The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands” (John 3:35). “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25). The word “power” here more exactly means “dominion, authority,” and has reference to the scepter and sovereignty of a king. The Lord Jesus means that He has been appointed to administer the government, both of heaven and earth, until the consummation of redemption. It is, indeed, a glorious and transcendent claim. Authority to Save

1. He has all authority to settle the standing and destiny of every sinner, and to control all our future prospects and our relations to God. He Himself could say, “For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him” (John 17:2). Through His name and the acceptance of His words all sins are forgiven, and the guilty soul in a moment is translated out of the kingdom of Satan and from the curse of sin and hell into the glorious liberty of the children of God and heirship of His everlasting kingdom. He has authority, in a moment, to arrest the sentence of judgment and condemnation, and to proclaim the guilty acquitted, justified, and joint heirs with Himself of all the hopes of the gospel. The power of salvation is in His hands. Once, when visiting the Castle of Toulon, in France, the emperor gave to a friendly king the right to set a single prisoner free, and he accepted it as a royal compliment. The Son of God has received from the Father the right to emancipate every criminal under the sun from every curse of the law of God if he will accept His mighty clemency. Well may we rejoice in the power of Jesus—His power to save. Well may the prophet cry in wonder and admiration, “Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah, with his garments stained crimson?… ‘It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save’” (Isaiah 63:1). The Holy Spirit
2. He imparts and controls the power of the Holy Spirit. The mighty spirit of Pentecost is His gift. The power that convicts of sin, of righteousness and of judgment is from Him. The power that clothed the apostles with such resistless might and divine efficiency is the power of our risen Christ, for Peter said of Him, “he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear…. Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:33, Acts 2:36). “God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him” (John 3:34). He has power still to awaken the most insensible soul and break the most hardened heart. It was He who struck Saul of Tarsus and broke his heart by a glance and word. It was He who convicted the rude jailer in the midnight hour. It was He who opened the heart of Lydia as the sun opens the blossoms of spring. And He still has power to draw the sinner, to melt the stony heart, to conquer the stubborn will, to sanctify the sinful soul, to consecrate the whole being to Himself. Is there anything that we need in our own spiritual life or in our work for souls? Our glorious King has all authority in heaven and on earth to accomplish it. As Our Intercessor
3. He has authority to give efficacy to our prayer. He is our Great High Priest as well as King. “I knew that you always hear me” (John 11:42). His hands receive our imperfect supplication, cleanse them from their defects and add to them His own intercessions and the incense of His perfect offering. Then He claims them as the right of His redemption, and fulfills them by the might of His omnipotence. Therefore there is nothing too hard for Him to grant to our supplications, or too difficult for us to ask of His Almightiness, when we remember that we are presenting our requests in the very name and character of Him who has “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God… Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence” (Hebrews 4:14, Hebrews 4:16). As we go forth in our work for God and in fulfillment, especially, of the great commission of this passage, our weapon is chiefly prayer; and in the light of this mighty manifesto, what may we not dare to claim for our own efficiency and the evangelization of the world? In Providence
4. He has all authority in the realm of providence. The burning wheels of Ezekiel’s vision all move at the touch of His hand; the chariots of the vision that Zechariah saw riding through the earth and putting all its conflicts at rest, go forth at His bidding. The thrones of earth rise and fall at His command. The events of history are the outworking of His plans. The book with the seven seals is held by His hand and opened by Him alone (Revelation 5:5). It is not true, of course, that He is responsible for the wickedness and willfulness of man, but His hand is over all man’s ways and His providence overrules all events. We see this constantly in His earthly ministry and in His government of the Church in the Acts of the Apostles. How easily He could send Peter to the sea for the single fish which had the golden coin in its mouth, sufficient to meet their needs! How exactly He brought the assembled multitudes to Pentecost, at the right time, to receive the Holy Spirit, and then scattered them all over the world! How wondrously He brought together Philip and the eunuch in the desert at the right moment, and then sent the converted prince to evangelize a kingdom and a continent! How easily He could lay His hand on the life of the impious Herod, and protect the trusting Peter from his violence! How marvelously He guarded the life of Paul through perils of persecuting foes, through perils of waters and perils of every enemy, until his work for Him was accomplished! How marvelously the Old Testament illustrates His providence! He could send the child of a Hebrew slave, doomed to death, into the house of Pharaoh, to become the child of Egypt’s king, and the deliverer of Israel from the man who had sought his own life in infancy. He could lead an army of three million for 40 years through the barren wilderness, and sustain them without hunger or lack. He could send a Hebrew maiden into the house of Persia’s monarch and make fair Esther the deliverer of her people. He could use Cyrus, without his understanding it, to be the restorer of Israel’s scattered tribes when the 70 years were literally fulfilled, and make Daniel’s captivity the occasion of his life and testimony in Babylon and the subjugation of Nebuchadnezzar and Darius at the feet of Israel’s God. He could give Jeremiah courage to be fearless and faithful for 40 years, amid the perils of Jerusalem’s last days, and then He could protect and guard his life, alone, of all others, in the hour of her fall and amid the massacre of her inhabitants. And He who did all this is Jesus, our Lord and Christ, with power undiminished, and only waiting for faith to claim its yet mightier victories in these last days. What God wants today in His Church, and in His work, is not so much that the world shall see the power of the Church, as the power of her Lord and the presence of Him who goes forth with His weakest servants and becomes their might and their mighty Victor. Oh, as we go forth to evangelize the nations and to represent our God amid the mighty forces of the world’s last days, let it be our supreme mission to realize and show forth the might of our anointed King, and so to stand for Him that the world can see once more that He has “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). In Nature
5. He has all power over natural laws and forces. While this material world is His creation, and He does not usually mar nor interrupt the uniform movement of the forces and laws that He has framed, yet He can suspend them at will and substitute higher forces if He pleases, just as the engineer can stop the engine or reverse it at his will. And so the Lord Jesus holds in His control the elements of nature, and still can quell the storm or bid it come; can counteract the poisonous malaria or render it harmless; can vitalize these exhausted physical frames with His divine life until our “weakness [is] turned to strength” (Hebrews 11:34), and can carry and sustain us through all the difficulties and apparent impossibilities that may surround our work for Him. Let us go forth, especially in the work of missions, realizing this, that nature is subordinate to redemption, and the natural subordinate to the spiritual, and the kingdom of matter is under the control of the King of saints. Overmen
6. Again, He has all authority over the minds and passions of men. He can hold back the murderer from his design or render him helpless in his attempt. Dr. Paton tells us how often the savages of Tanna assembled to take his life, and some chief was led to stand up in a critical moment, and by an unlooked-for suggestion to turn them aside from their plan, and they dispersed without hurting a hair of his head. How he had gone through armed and furious crowds of naked savages, determined to murder him, and escaped their hands, turning sometimes to them and commanding them, in the name of the God of heaven, to disperse and desist, and sometimes, seeing their muskets pointed and their spears poised, and yet in a few moments fall unused to the ground, and his life miraculously spared. Our blessed Christ has still this power in every place where His servants need His protecting presence, for He has “all authority… on earth” (Matthew 28:18). Kings’ hearts are in His hands, and He can still say to all our foes, “Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm” (1 Chronicles 16:22). He can still induce men to receive us, to accept our testimony, to help us by their influence, their means and their cooperation. It was He who gave Daniel favor with his masters in Babylon, and Joseph the confidence of his king, and Mordecai his place of power in Persia, and Paul the confidence of the Roman captain and of Caesar’s household. And in every age He has shown how He can put His hand on men when He needs them, and call them in a moment to the place He means them to fill. Oh, that we might know better and trust our Almighty King! Then would we trust less in man and care less, either for his frowns or his favor. But, moving on the might of a divine dependence, we would know that God would bring to us all men that we need for His work, and help us, by many or by few, as He sees best. Over the Creation
7. Christ has all power over the lower orders of creation. “I have given you authority,” He says, “to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you” (Luke 10:19). He that went with Daniel into the lion’s den has gone many times since then with men like Arnot into the jungles of Africa, and paralyzed the fury of the savage beasts and made them slink away abashed before the keen and fearless eye of His trusting child. Over Satan
8. Christ has all power over Satan and all our spiritual foes. We are so glad of this. We meet our adversary with the assurance that he is a conquered foe in the presence of our Lord. We may well fear him in our own behalf, but as we claim the abiding presence of our Christ, he is but a toothless lion, a disarmed and humiliated foe and an empty shadow and sham. Let us not dread his power nor try to evade his fury, for he will do his worst against us, but with our Master in our midst we need not be afraid. His assaults will only end in greater victories, and in all these things “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). Are we not afraid sometimes, and shrink from positions where we know we shall meet the adversary’s wrath? Let us no longer dishonor our Lord, but know that the places of most peril are the places of the most absolute safety. Over Angels
9. Christ has all power over angelic beings. These mighty creatures who perform the executive offices of the government of God, and through the universe with their ceaseless ministries, all go forth under the orders of our anointed King. Myriads of them crowd this earth and wait upon the saints of God, but they are all subject to our Master’s orders. Occasionally the curtain parts enough for us to see the shining form of one or two as they are engaged upon their ceaseless services, but when we see them not, they are doubtless ever near. The Old Testament is full of their interpositions in human affairs, and the New has many examples of it. It was an angel that opened the Redeemer’s tomb, an angel that told Mary of the resurrection, an angel opened Peter’s prison and smote his persecutor, an angel stood on the tossing ship by the side of Paul and promised him deliverance. And, surely, their ministry did not end when the great apostles passed home. Unseen by mortal eyes they have still fulfilled their loving tasks through every generation. And when each of us shall close our eyes on the last human face, we shall find some shining companion by our side gazing upon us with a look of quiet recognition and tender affection, smiling at our look of wonder, and saying to us, perhaps, “I have known you for half a century, better than your mother, your wife or dearest friend. I nursed your infancy, guarded your childhood, protected your manhood, hovered over your dying bed and now am waiting to guide your spirit home.” Who of us cannot remember some moment when we had just escaped a sudden peril, or stood within a hairbreadth of death, and as our palpitating heart recovered its pulsation, a strange heavenly hush breathed over our spirit and a voice almost seemed to whisper, “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways” (Psalms 91:11)? Samuel Rutherford tells us how, when a child, he fell into a deep well. For a long time he struggled to hold on to the slippery sides and called in vain for help, and at last began to sink. Just as he was perishing, he says, a beautiful man slipped quietly down into the well, lifted him out without a word, and left him safely on the ground above and immediately disappeared. The glorious old saint did not doubt that it was, literally, an angel of the Lord. How often they have interposed for the visible deliverance of God’s servants we cannot tell. Who knows but they come in human guise sometimes, when all other help has failed. Enough to know that when we need them they are at hand in the most lonely place, and they are all under the command of the Son of God; for it is said, “Let all God’s angels worship him” (Hebrews 1:6), and in the book of Revelation we see them going forth at His bidding to fulfill His mighty purposes in these last days. Over Earthly Rulers
10. Finally, our risen Christ is yet to have all the power of earth’s kingdoms under His scepter and to be the King of kings and Lord of lords. God will overturn and overturn and overturn until He comes, whose right it is. For the kingdoms of this world must become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. This is Christ’s covenant right and reward, and the Father’s heart will never be satisfied for His Son until His will is done on earth as it is in heaven. We shall yet see our blessed King wearing the crown of all the world, and we shall see every knee bowing to Him, and every tongue confessing He is Lord. He shall reign, from pole to pole, With illimitable sway; He shall reign, when like a scroll Earth and heaven shall pass away.

Section II: the Great Commission

Section II—the Great Commission"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19). Because of His power, and because of His right, He bids His disciples go forth to establish His kingdom among all nations. To the Nations

1. We must be struck, first of all, with the boldness and majesty of this command. He did not send them now simply to individuals, but to nations. He looked upon the mighty communities of earth as not too great for the conquest of His kingdom, and the mission of His followers to win. He sends us forth as ambassadors to earth’s great powers and as His soldiers against the mighty hosts of humanity. The work of foreign missions ought to deal very directly not only with individuals but with nations. God has a purpose in the tribes and tongues of earth. He wants them all represented in the great triumphant song which is to echo around the throne, and we ought not to be satisfied while a nation or tongue is not evangelized. Indeed, His coming is directly connected with the evangelization of all nations, not necessarily all individuals. The Church of today ought to lift up her eyes upon the fields (John 4:35) and see how far and how faithfully she has fulfilled this commission with respect to neglected nations and unevangelized races and people. It would seem to be the special call of Christ today to each of us to see, so far as in us lies, that every community that has not yet received the gospel is specially visited with the message of our King. There are still many tribes of earth who have not received the message. There are scores in Africa and several in Asia, who have yet no part in the chorus of redemption, and were the Lord to come tomorrow, their tongue would not be heard in the great millennial psalm which shall arise at His coming, when All people that on earth do dwell, Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice. Universal2. The universality of the commission is sublime. It sweeps the circumference of the world. It spreads its royal scepter over an empire more magnificent than Nebuchadnezzar claimed or Caesar saw. It reaches far beyond the narrow limits of Jewish patriotism or imperial ambition. Never was an empire so grand and universal as that which, by and by, shall join in the chorus of coronation, Let every kindred, every tribe On this terrestrial ball, To Him all majesty ascribe, And crown Him Lord of all. Oh, as we have already said, let each missionary burn to make the victories of the gospel as universal as the commission which He has given. May each of us have the holy aspiration to add one other tongue or one other tribe that none have reached before, to the glorious song which is soon to burst forth when the ransomed hosts from every land shall, with songs, surround the throne, and it shall indeed be true, Ten thousand are their tongues But all their hearts are one. Go3. The commission given is an aggressive and progressive one: “Go” (Matthew 28:19). It does not imply by any means the idea of settling down in comfortable repose and consolidating great ecclesiastical institutions; but it is a ministry of itinerance, and we very much doubt whether any church or servant of the Lord should cease to go in this sense of aggressive and progressive work. The missionary is to go until all regions are visited and all tribes evangelized; the Church is to go until all who are at liberty have become the messengers of the gospel. In the early Church we find not only Paul and Barnabas going, but Aquila and Priscilla, working people, Gaius and Aristarchus, and many of Paul’s companions constantly moving with him from place to place. Evidently they were men and women from the ordinary walk of life, who counted it their commission to share in the toils and tasks of the gospel. The time has come when the heathen world needs more than stereotyped ministers to meet its awful needs, and Christ is calling a whole army of plain and practical men and women to cover its needy fields. Good Pastor Harms long before suggested a way: namely, the missionary colony. Today in Africa and India thousands of happy native Christians are the fruit of a humble missionary movement, in which a whole parish almost moved bodily to the heathen world and settled down among them to teach them how to live as well as how to know the Lord. God grant that the next few years may put such a go in the hearts of thousands of the consecrated children of God that they cannot any longer stay at home, and a great army of picked men and women, who fear no hardship and seek no rest short of the Master’s coming, shall spread over all the neglected fields of the heathen world! Evangelization
2. The first process in this great work is denoted by the term “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). This is not “teach” (Matthew 28:19), which is an incorrect translation, but rather “evangelize,” that is, bring to the knowledge of Christ and the fold of Christ. It is, in a word, the work of evangelization, the quick and worldwide proclamation of the gospel in every land, with a view to gathering out all who are willing to confess the truth and follow the Savior. This is the first work of missions, and until this is done the work of costly organization and education should be held in subordination. Too little has this been the object of missionary societies and too much the building up of elaborate establishments. This was the apostolic method. In his great missionary journeys Paul swept over vast fields. In a few months he had itinerated over Cyprus, Iconium and Central Asia Minor, and then was ready to go over these fields again and establish them more formally. On his later journeys he swept with similar celerity over Syria, Cilicia, Galatia, Macedonia and Achaia in a few years, preaching the gospel in many countries and gathering multitudes to Christ. This is the world’s great need today. In a single generation its entire population will have passed away, and what has to be done must be done at once. One night, in Albert Hall in London, the royal family of England and the most distinguished men and women of the nation assembled and stood upon their feet to receive and honor Henry Stanley because he had successfully penetrated Africa and rescued a brave man from isolation and peril. Oh, what honor will heaven pay to the men and women who will penetrate these dark regions for a nobler purpose and rescue their millions from the tyranny of Satan and the curse of despair! Surely all heaven will stand up some day to receive them and the Son of God Himself will make them sit down and will serve them with His own Royal hands. Organization
3. The work of evangelization is to be followed by the work of organization. “Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). This is the ecclesiastical part. But there is a notable absence of all ecclesiasticism. We find no name of modern sect in this organization. The only name into which they are baptized is that of God. There must of course be organization: the public confession of Christ in baptism, the uniting of the little flock in the name of Christ and the proper discipline and government of the Church. But this should be as simple as possible, and adapted in each case to the exigencies of the case, and whatever may be the denominational form, its spirit should always be as large as the one body of Christ. Teaching
4. The last direction respecting this great work has reference to what we might call the edification of the Church. It includes the building up of the Church of Christ in truth and holiness; “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). This, of course, includes the deeper instruction and the higher training of the flock of Christ, and this is proper and scriptural in the Church both at home and abroad, and should be carefully provided for, that the flock may be fed, not only with milk, but with meat, and prepared for the highest Christian living and the most effective work for the Master. But it is not in the traditions of men that it is to be taught, but in the commandments of Christ—in the practical observance of His will and the duties and experiences of holy living, the one simple rule of life being “everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). Such then, is the Master’s great commission; the one message which He gave on this great occasion, this most important meeting with His flock after His resurrection.

Section III: This Abiding Presence

Section III—This Abiding Presence"And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). There is something very emphatic in the note of exclamation, “surely”! It implies that they would be likely to forget it. It is intended to call perpetual attention to it. No matter how improbable it may appear, and how many other presences may seem to crowd it out, yet lo! I am with you. Look more closely and you will see Him. There is, also, special emphasis in the present tense, “I am with you.” It might have implied a presence different from that which they now enjoyed—that there was to be a break in His abiding with them, and then a subsequent appearing. But He says, “I am with you.” I shall not cease for a moment to be with you. I shall be as truly with you the moment after my ascension as I am now while I am speaking these words to you.