If you could have any superpower, what would it be? What would you do with it? I asked people on Facebook and here’s what they said:
- Patience
- Time travel - so I could hit all
my grandchildren’s ballgames and not have to choose!
- The ability to heal - both
yourself and others
- Omniscience - to be all knowing
- The power/charisma to convince
people
- Ultimate faithfulness to be able
to turn all concerns to Jesus and accept his Will unconditionally with
Praise and Glory to God.
- Teleportation
- Invisibility
- The ability to fly
- be to cure cancer
- be to instill love and compassion
into every person’s heart
- to be able to duplicate themselves
- Ask powerful questions that
helped people reflect on how much they are loved by God such that their
character would manifest the fruit of the Spirit
- To ensure that no children go to
bed hungry
In our passage today, Jesus says He has been given a super power: all authority in heaven/earth; then He tells what He wants to do with it.
Matthew 28:16-20
16 Then the eleven disciples
went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When
they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then
Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has
been given to me. 19 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, 20 and teaching them to obey
everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the
very end of the age.”
Before we talk about Jesus' authority and what He wants to do with it, I want to point out the first thing that grabbed me in this passage because I think it’s really important. It says they worshipped Jesus, but some doubted. They are with the risen Jesus, in the flesh, but some still doubted.
That amazes to me! Then
I realize I have also personally seen Jesus do some amazing things.
He has provided for me – out of a broken, impoverished home; and I'm still here when many of my friends didn't make it. God granted me a beautiful wife. He
helped me raise three successful kids. He saw me through 25 years
of ministry - ordination, ministry struggles (staff changes, addictions, fires,
floods, disaffiliation). God has been with me through all of this, yet sometimes I
still doubt.
So, if you sometimes doubt, don’t beat yourself up. Jesus still loves you whether you are brimming with confidence or struggling or just hanging on trying to believe. And Jesus still gives you a mission. The mission is based on His authority, not our certainty. Jesus says, “ I am with you always…”
Now let’s talk about Jesus’ authority. What would you do if you had “all authority in heaven and on earth”? Jesus had all authority. He could have used it to make people bow down to Him, to serve Him, to build His throne. He even could have used His power and authority to snap HIs fingers and fix the whole world all by Himself in an instant. But he didn’t.
Jesus chose to use His authority to commission us. Rather than doing something all by Himself, He gives us the honor of doing it with Him. He must have done that for a very important reason, because we’re idiots! So, there must be something about the God of Heaven and Earth inviting His children to get involved that’s really important. I think it is part of the healing process for us to help God in His work to save our world.
How do you use your influence? Do you use it to control? Protect yourselves? Elevate yourselves? Do you use it selfishly or do you use it to empower others? Jesus used His authority to empower us to do something. What exactly did He empower us for?
Verses 19-20 tell us we
are to make disciples, baptize, and teach. Let’s look at each of these. We are to make disciples. This is the main command but do we know
what it means? It doesn’t just mean to win converts, gain new church members, or get people to
attend church. We’re called to make disciples.
Jesus also commissioned us to baptize people. Baptism publicly identifies a person with Christ. It says, they are a member of God’s family.
Way back in the Old Testament, God called Abraham to leave his home and go to a promised land he would show him. And God said He would make Abraham the father of a great nation that would be God's special chosen people. And God told Abraham that every child should be circumcised at 8-days old. Circumcision would be the sign that they were God's chosen people. Them, in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul said baptism is the new circumcision--the sign that Christians are God's people.
It is our tradition in the Methodist Church to baptize our children to claim them for Christ—to say they are part of the family of God. When they grow up, they choose Christ for themselves. Ultimately, we baptize people because, someone who is baptized has a new identity in Christ. People today identify themselves in all kinds of ways: parent, American, a Georgia bulldog fan, introvert/extrovert, etc. You can be all those things, but Christ should be your primary identifier. Baptism is the moment we say, ‘I belong to Jesus now.’
Jesus commissioned us to teach people to obey everything He commanded. We’re not just teaching them about Jesus, because knowing information about Jesus is not the same as following Jesus. We’re to teach people to obey Jesus’ commands.
What Jesus commissioned His followers to do is like raising a child. Think about it. We’re called to bring people into God’s family and then teach them how to live. Then, they go out and bring more people into God’s family and teach them how to live.
If we’re not helping people grow in Christ, then we’re not fully doing what Jesus called us to do.
So, here we are. Some us worship. Some of us doubt. We do both at different times--and sometimes a the same time! Jesus doesn’t wait for perfect faith. He doesn’t hold back His mission. He speaks with all the authority of Heaven and Earth and He commissions us to make disciples, to baptize, to teach.
But before we go out into
the world to serve, to try and live out this calling, Jesus invites us to come to Him. Because it begins with what Jesus has already done for us.
One of the most sacred ways He reminds us what He’s done is Holy Communion. At this table:
- We remember His sacrifice
- We receive His grace
- We experience His presence
And I would remind you something we’ve learned today:
this invitation isn’t just for people with strong faith.
It’s also for those who still have questions and doubts.
So today, if you have confidence—come.
If you have doubts—come.
If you long to believe—come.
Because Jesus meets us right here in all of these.
The same Jesus who said, ‘Go and make disciples,’ also
says,
‘Come to the table. Taste and see.’
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