Doug McMasters: January 2022.
Doug McMasters: You guys remember what you were doing in January 2022?
Doug McMasters: Well, for a lot of you, not every one of us, but for a lot of you, you heard me say, please turn with me in your Bible to Matthew chapter 1.
Doug McMasters: And we started a journey through the gospel of Matthew.
Doug McMasters: So here we are in September 2024, and I invite you to turn with me in your Bible to Matthew chapter 28.
Doug McMasters: And we'll look at the last five verses of this book.
Doug McMasters: Won't be the very end of our look at this book.
Doug McMasters: Next week, Micah is going to kind of look back over the past 33 months that we've been together in this book and give us the essence of what we should take away with us out of Matthew's gospel.
Doug McMasters: Today we're going to be looking at verses 16 through 20.
Doug McMasters: Interestingly, Matthew's only resurrection account with Jesus and the 11 apostles.
Doug McMasters: But even that's kind of secondary in nature because there's something included here, not the ascension passage, but the closing verses of Matthew bring us to what's often known as the Great Commission, in which Jesus gives to his people their marching orders.
Doug McMasters: These five verses comprise the Great Commission and establish for us what is the most important ongoing agenda for God's people to the end of the age.
Doug McMasters: And so Matthew here encapsulates in these final verses the primary thrust of the whole book of Matthew.
Doug McMasters: That Jesus has come to inaugurate a kingdom of God on earth by bringing men and women, boys and girls, into a saving relationship with himself.
Doug McMasters: Let's read the passage.
Doug McMasters: The eleven disciples traveled to Galilee to the mountain where Jesus had directed them.
Doug McMasters: And when they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted.
Doug McMasters: Jesus came near and said to them, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
Doug McMasters: 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 everything I've commanded you.
Doug McMasters: And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age.
Doug McMasters: The first thing I want us to notice in this passage is the setting of the Great Commission, the setting of the Great Commission.
Doug McMasters: And in verses 16 and 17, we're giving a few little themes that are familiar to us by now, having gone through Matthew's gospel.
Doug McMasters: And the first one is the location, Galilee.
Doug McMasters: One of the things that stands out in the resurrection passage, going back to the earlier part of chapter 28, is that when the women come to the empty tomb, they're given a double charge to instruct the apostles to head to Galilee.
Doug McMasters: In verse 7, the angel says, He is risen from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee.
Doug McMasters: You will see him there.
Doug McMasters: And then in verse 10, Jesus himself says to the same women, Do not be afraid.
Doug McMasters: Go and tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.
Doug McMasters: And so in verse 16, where do these men go?
Doug McMasters: Well, they go to Galilee.
Doug McMasters: That's where they go.
Doug McMasters: And we shouldn't find this place odd.
Doug McMasters: This has been introduced to us often as the location of Jesus' earthly ministry, particularly in Matthew's gospel.
Doug McMasters: It's not only a statement of familiarity, but it's also a statement of assurance to these men of who they're going to meet.
Doug McMasters: Because before Jesus was crucified, in Matthew chapter 26, he said to them, Tonight all of you will fall away because of me, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.
Doug McMasters: But then he said this, but after I have risen, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.
Doug McMasters: So here these men hear this term Galilee, and they realize the same Lord before he was crucified is the same Lord after the crucifixion and after the resurrection.
Doug McMasters: Go to Galilee.
Doug McMasters: Well, Galilee's been a familiar place for us in Matthew's gospel.
Doug McMasters: It's mentioned 16 times, more than Judea, more than Jerusalem.
Doug McMasters: It is the place where Jesus' ministry was set.
Doug McMasters: In fact, at the very beginning in Matthew chapter 4, it says this: this was to fulfill the prophecy of Prophet Isaiah, land of Zebelan and Naphtali, along the road by the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who live in darkness have seen a great light.
Doug McMasters: And those who live in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.
Doug McMasters: And so Jesus, when he began his ministry in verse 23 of chapter 4, said, He went all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, healing every disease and sickness among the people.
Doug McMasters: So the light that dawned at the beginning of Christ's ministry in Galilee, it's no wonder that at the end of Christ's earthly ministry, that same light shines in the same place.
Doug McMasters: But there's something else mentioned here about the setting of the Great Commission.
Doug McMasters: It's also a mountain.
Doug McMasters: Go to a mountain, it says in verse 16, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them.
Doug McMasters: Again, throughout the Gospel of Matthew, we've seen Jesus on mountains, the sermon on the mount, right?
Doug McMasters: Chapters five to seven.
Doug McMasters: Mountains where Jesus went for solitude.
Doug McMasters: Mountains are where Jesus went to meet people.
Doug McMasters: Mountains in Matthew are connected with Jesus' temptation.
Doug McMasters: They're connected with places of faith and security.
Doug McMasters: A theme connected to the book of Exodus, where God reveals himself to his messenger in order to declare his will.
Doug McMasters: And here we have God in Jesus Christ revealing to his messengers his will of salvation for the nations.
Doug McMasters: Something else we see in this setting is worship in verse 17.
Doug McMasters: We see that they worshiped.
Doug McMasters: Again, in Matthew's gospel, Jesus has been the object of worship.
Doug McMasters: Worship by the wise men in chapter 2 and verse 2 and 11.
Doug McMasters: Worship by the disciples in the boat in chapter 14.
Doug McMasters: Worship by the women after the resurrection in chapter 28.
Doug McMasters: The devil tried to get Jesus to worship him.
Doug McMasters: And the response was one that there's only one object of worship, and that is the God of the Bible.
Doug McMasters: And so Matthew here is teaching us that there's no clash of conflict between the worship of God as a monotheistic Jew and the worship of Jesus, because Jesus is God.
Doug McMasters: But the setting also brings to us another familiar theme out of Matthew: faith and doubt.
Doug McMasters: Some doubt it.
Doug McMasters: We've seen the theme of faith all through Matthew's gospel.
Doug McMasters: The Roman centurion, the friends of the paralytic, the woman with the discharge of blood, the Canaanite woman.
Doug McMasters: All of these have expressed clear decorative faith in Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: But also throughout Matthew's gospel, we've seen doubts.
Doug McMasters: And the ones who have doubted the most have been the disciples.
Doug McMasters: They doubted in the sermon, OU of Little Faith, chapter 6 and verse 30.
Doug McMasters: They doubted in the boat, OU of little faith, in chapter 8 and verse 26.
Doug McMasters: They doubted on the sea, oh you of little faith, when Peter cried out, help me, I'm sinking, save me, Lord.
Doug McMasters: They doubted by the shore.
Doug McMasters: They doubted after the transfiguration.
Doug McMasters: It's no wonder they doubted here again.
Doug McMasters: Whether they're confronted by the storm, confronted by the lack of bread, confronted by the inability to cast out demons, these disciples are doubters.
Doug McMasters: While outside the apostolic circle are emblems of faith.
Doug McMasters: It's a remarkable thing.
Doug McMasters: And I think it's one of the statements that makes the authenticity of this gospel ring so clear.
Doug McMasters: These men don't hesitate to talk about how foolish they are, how doubtful they were, how lacking in trust they were throughout the whole ministry of Jesus Christ, even into the resurrection.
Doug McMasters: They doubt it.
Doug McMasters: And Matthew is trying to help us understand here that the resurrection was not something they had anticipated, even though they had been told it.
Doug McMasters: That the resurrection wasn't just requiring some religious enthusiasm and gullibility to believe, but that they could actually doubt the historicity and authenticity of this momentous occasion that Jesus literally rose from the dead.
Doug McMasters: And that they would have verifiable proof that he did.
Doug McMasters: Take your hands and touch me.
Doug McMasters: Thrust your hand to my side, Thomas.
Doug McMasters: Don't be doubting, but believe.
Doug McMasters: The doubt was normal.
Doug McMasters: The belief was something they could grab a hold of because it was more than just enthusiasm.
Doug McMasters: It was more than just gullibility.
Doug McMasters: It was irrefutable truth.
Doug McMasters: Now that brings us into this section that we look at, that we spend a lot of time on.
Doug McMasters: And the first thing that I want to see beyond the setting of the Great Commission is the source of the Great Commission.
Doug McMasters: And we're introduced in verse 17 by the first of four all statements.
Doug McMasters: All authority, all nations, all things Christ commands, all our days in Jesus' presence.
Doug McMasters: And here is the first, the one that all authority is found in Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: He begins in verse 18 by giving that remark All authority has been given to me in heaven and in earth.
Doug McMasters: What a word of comfort that must have been to them.
Doug McMasters: Leaving Jerusalem, the place probably in hiding because of fear that they would be grabbed a hold of as disciples of Jesus who had just been crucified.
Doug McMasters: Leaving that place, heading out days' journey back to Galilee, sitting there and meeting up with Jesus, and to hear the first things he says to them is all authority has been given to me in heaven and in earth.
Doug McMasters: That he was and is and always will be their master, that he has come with power, power to protect, and yet also, as we'll see, power to commission them to action.
Doug McMasters: Now, let us remember that the authority of Jesus Christ prior to this has also been stated.
Doug McMasters: It's been heavily stressed throughout Matthew's gospel.
Doug McMasters: Jesus had the authority to do this, to do that, the authority by which he spoke, the authority by which he cast out demons, the authority by which he raised the dead, the authority by which he brought sight to the blind.
Doug McMasters: This is not to say that the resurrection authority is somehow different than the authority that he had before.
Doug McMasters: It's not as if it became more absolute, but it does talk about the scope of it broadening.
Doug McMasters: Now it is all authority in heaven and in earth that has been given to him.
Doug McMasters: And he now reigns as what we call the mediatorial king, where all of God's authority is mediated through Jesus Christ, God man.
Doug McMasters: Here we find the answer to that vision in the book of Revelation, where a scroll that was sealed with seven seals was brought out before all humanity.
Doug McMasters: And the cry there was, Who is worthy to open the seals and to release the scroll?
Doug McMasters: And John wept because he said, I found no one, no one who was worthy.
SPEAKER_00: And he was told, Don't weep, but look.
Doug McMasters: And he saw a lamb as if it were slain, coming, the lion of the tribe of Judah.
Doug McMasters: And it was declared to him, he is the one who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll.
Doug McMasters: The authority of heaven and earth is his alone.
Doug McMasters: And here it is.
Doug McMasters: Here is that climatic vindication of his humiliation that Paul talks about in Philippians.
Doug McMasters: For this reason, God highly exalted him and gave him a name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, whether it's things in heaven or in earth or under the earth, and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Doug McMasters: This statement is the turning point of redemptive history.
Doug McMasters: The King has come and is reigning over heaven and earth.
Doug McMasters: This is his dominion, and he's exercising it at the dawn of this new day with a new power, with a new command that we'll get into in just a moment.
Doug McMasters: All of this is coming out of the foreshadowing of the Old Testament.
Doug McMasters: The Old Testament in Daniel chapter 7 in verses 13 and 14.
Doug McMasters: The Son of Man, once humiliated in suffering, is given ultimate authority.
Doug McMasters: Listen to Daniel 7 and see if it doesn't ring with the sound of Matthew 28.
Doug McMasters: Daniel says, I continued watching into the night visions, and suddenly one like a son of man was coming with the clouds of heaven, and he approached the ancient of days and was escorted before him, and he was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, so that every people, nation, and language should serve him.
Doug McMasters: His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed.
Doug McMasters: This Jesus is standing on this mountain in front of his apostles, saying, He is the fulfillment of that prophecy in Daniel 7.
Doug McMasters: But there's something else.
Doug McMasters: And it's something we miss a lot because we read an English Bible that's been put into the order it's in for a long time, not realizing that the Jewish Bible actually ended differently.
Doug McMasters: What's the last book that you read when you read your Old Testament?
Doug McMasters: Malachi or Malachci, the Italian prophet, right?
Doug McMasters: Right?
Doug McMasters: You read Malachi.
Doug McMasters: What would the people in Jesus' day have finished their reading of the Old Testament with?
Doug McMasters: Second Chronicles.
Doug McMasters: Second Chronicles, not Malachi.
Doug McMasters: This would have been the last thing that they would have read.
Doug McMasters: In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah, the Lord roused the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom and also to put in writing.
Doug McMasters: Listen, this is what King Cyrus of Persia says.
Doug McMasters: The passage carries a lot of similarities.
Doug McMasters: It carries the similarity of an authority statement in which heaven and earth are invoked.
Doug McMasters: It carries with it a new beginning for God's people.
Doug McMasters: Again, another similarity.
Doug McMasters: It includes the similarity of a directive to undertake a task, there to build a temple.
Doug McMasters: This one for the people to go out and build a meeting place of God, a temple.
Doug McMasters: But it is not a building, but the people themselves for the temple.
Doug McMasters: And it carries with it the idea of God being with those who are directed.
Doug McMasters: And the similarities don't end there.
Doug McMasters: These are just the ones I'm going to take the time to mention.
Doug McMasters: At the end of Matthew, Jesus is offering his great commission, not as a pagan king to theocratic Israel, but he's speaking as the true divine king Jesus to the remnant of the true Israel, the eleven.
Doug McMasters: And Jesus, just like Cyrus, was given earthly authority to ensure that the temple was built, so Jesus is granted all authority in heaven and on earth where the true greater temple is going to be built, but not one built with hands, but one built by God through the Spirit and the Word to bring new life to people where they themselves would be built up as stones in a wondrous temple of the people of God giving praise to God through Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: Just as Jesus told the woman at the well, it won't be in this mountain or in that mountain, but God is seeking people who will be true worshipers who will worship him in spirit and in truth.
Doug McMasters: And this is why the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 2 that we are built on the foundation of the apostles, the declaration of the Great Commission, and prophets, the promises of the Old Testament, with Jesus himself being the cornerstone.
Doug McMasters: In him, the whole building being put together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
Doug McMasters: So here we are.
Doug McMasters: The source of this great commission flows out of the types and figures and promises and prophecies of the Old Testament.
Doug McMasters: And Jesus here is now talking about the dawn of a new day with a new temple being built, with Jesus standing as king over his people who will give him praise.
Doug McMasters: And so when Jesus speaks about this, he speaks about it with the authority to bring an assurance to these men that from the day that they're given this commission until the day of the consummation of the age, they go with the authority of Christ who is doing his work through them.
Doug McMasters: And we can enjoy that same sense of comfort.
Doug McMasters: That brings us now to the substance of the Great Commission.
Doug McMasters: We have the setting of it, the source of it, and now the substance of the Great Commission.
Doug McMasters: Here, Jesus gives them four elements of this.
Doug McMasters: First of all, to go to all nations, to all ethnos, to all tribes, to all peoples.
Doug McMasters: Not the way we think of nations so much, but the way they would have thought us nations, in their ethnicities, broken up into those smaller areas than what we might call nations.
Doug McMasters: Matthew's gospel begins with a genealogy.
Doug McMasters: It begins with a genealogy that traces Jesus' line back to David and then back to Abraham.
Doug McMasters: Luke goes all the way to Adam, but Matthew starts with Abraham.
Doug McMasters: Why does he start with Abraham?
Doug McMasters: Matthew starts with Abraham because with Abraham God made a covenant.
Doug McMasters: With Abraham, God made a covenant in which he promised within the seed of Abraham all the nations would be blessed.
Doug McMasters: And every time that covenant promise was reiterated in the Old Testament, in Genesis 18 and verse 18, and Genesis 22 and verse 18, the phrase in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it would have these words, ponta ta ethne, all the peoples.
Doug McMasters: All nations.
Doug McMasters: The exact same phrase here, ponta ta ethne, all the peoples.
Doug McMasters: And so Matthew is returning to the theme that he started with in Genesis, in Matthew chapter one and verse one, that the blessings that were promised to Abraham that would be through him to the whole earth started with the coming of the Christ, Jesus, is now being fulfilled in the exaltation of the Christ, Jesus.
Doug McMasters: And so this is why he is commissioning us to go, because the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise is being fulfilled through the gospel proclamation, through the apostolic declaration that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior.
Doug McMasters: It's no coincidence here that Matthew ends with the whole world.
Doug McMasters: It's exactly how he started.
Doug McMasters: That Jesus is a fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise of blessing.
Doug McMasters: The kingdom is come in Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: And this new king is now through his disciples calling people from all nations to submit themselves to his lordship, being filled with the Holy Spirit and creating a new society, one full of love and forgiveness.
Doug McMasters: Outside that society is darkness, where the flesh reigns rather than the spirit, where Satan, the prince of the power of the air, still holds sway.
Doug McMasters: But the final goal is that all peoples would be able to cry just as Paul said, that every knee would bow.
Doug McMasters: So that's the first part.
Doug McMasters: Go to all nations, but then make disciples of them.
Doug McMasters: The aim of this proclamation is for that all people everywhere without distinction might become disciples of Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: Just to put it technically, one person wrote this to disciple a person to Christ is to bring him into relationship of a pupil to a teacher, taking his yoke of authoritative instruction, accepting what he says as true because he says it, and submitting to his requirements as right because he makes them.
Doug McMasters: Basically, he was saying this: that a disciple is a person who identifies with the person who's discipling them, a person who accepts what the person who's discipling them says, and a person who submits to what they're being taught.
Doug McMasters: Jesus said, make disciples of him.
Doug McMasters: So we identify ourselves with Jesus, we accept what Jesus says, and we submit ourselves to what Jesus commands.
Doug McMasters: It's as simple as that.
Doug McMasters: Those who hear, those who welcome, and those who obey Jesus' teaching.
Doug McMasters: The Apostle Paul put it a little differently.
Doug McMasters: He said, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Doug McMasters: For one believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confess with the mouth, resulting in salvation.
Doug McMasters: For the scripture says, Whoever believes in him shall not be put ashamed.
Doug McMasters: For there's no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call upon him.
Doug McMasters: For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Doug McMasters: Those who identify with Jesus, those who welcome Jesus, and those who submit themselves to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it is.
SPEAKER_00: Now, notice two more things.
Doug McMasters: First, there's the going to all the nations, there's the making disciples out of all the nations, and then there's baptizing and teaching.
Doug McMasters: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you.
Doug McMasters: Now, I don't have time to get into the Greek construct of all of this, but let me just tell you that baptism teaching do not coordinate directly with making disciples.
Doug McMasters: They are subordinate to making disciples.
Doug McMasters: There are a lot to say about that, and I could probably spend an hour just talking about that, but I won't.
Doug McMasters: But what it's basic, what I'm basically saying is this baptizing and teaching are not the means of making a disciple.
Doug McMasters: You don't become a disciple by being baptized and then being taught and then becoming a disciple.
Doug McMasters: You are baptized and taught because you already are a disciple.
Doug McMasters: Baptizing and teaching don't make you a disciple, but they characterize you as one who is.
Doug McMasters: The preaching of the gospel results in repentance and faith.
Doug McMasters: And a person who's turned from sin and turned to the Lord Jesus Christ is going to identify with Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: And baptism is the means by which you identify with your Savior and His people.
Doug McMasters: And the teaching to observe all things is the means by which you show that you're submitting yourself to that one who is now your Lord, bringing your life in greater degrees of conformity to his will.
Doug McMasters: Not in a linear way, not in a jump in some higher life that you've all of a sudden gotten into.
Doug McMasters: But as God moves and shapes your life progressively, you become more and more like the Savior that you love and obey.
Doug McMasters: Just like C.S.
Doug McMasters: Lewis said one day, he said, Yeah, when you when you've come to Jesus Christ as your Savior and He begins to make changes in your life, you think, Oh, that's good.
Doug McMasters: I I needed I needed a couple of those shingles on my roof replaced, and and there was a little painting in the side room that I needed painted.
Doug McMasters: And, you know, it's a it's a little bit of a disruption in my life when those kind of things are happening.
Doug McMasters: The repairmen's come in, they brought in the paint, they've traped all over my carpet, but you know, that's okay.
Doug McMasters: But then all of a sudden you realize that when Jesus Christ comes into your life, he doesn't come in just to patch the roof or to paint a side room.
Doug McMasters: He's knocking out walls and he's pouring new concrete and he's ripping off the whole roof.
Doug McMasters: And you say, wait a second, what is this?
Doug McMasters: And you realize that the king has come into your little cottage, not to just make it a little sweeter, nice retirement home for yourself, but he means to make himself a palace, and he's going to dwell in it.
Doug McMasters: And so he's knocking out your walls, he's ripping off of your roofs, he's laying out bigger foundations because he is making a place for the king to reside.
Doug McMasters: Amen.
Doug McMasters: So baptism is a declaration of identity.
Doug McMasters: Teaching is a declaration of submission that disciples already have.
Doug McMasters: And so when you become a part of New Hyde Park Baptist Church, one of the things that we're going to ask you, first of all, is are you a disciple of Christ?
Doug McMasters: Have you identified yourself with Jesus Christ?
Doug McMasters: Have you welcomed Jesus Christ into your life?
Doug McMasters: Are you now submitting yourself to him?
Doug McMasters: And will you now follow him in baptism to be identified with his people?
Doug McMasters: That's why we baptize only those who confess with their mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart that God has raised him from the dead.
Doug McMasters: That's why we don't baptize babies.
Doug McMasters: That's why we don't baptize infants.
Doug McMasters: It's why we don't baptize little children, but those who can from the heart speak of that transforming work of God's grace and salvation to bring repentance and faith into their life.
Doug McMasters: Let me speak last of all, not just to the setting of the Great Commission, and not just the source of the Great Commission, or the substance of the Great Commission, but to this last thing here, to the security and strength of the Great Commission.
Doug McMasters: Jesus here says, I am with you always to the end of the age.
Doug McMasters: First of all, it tells us that this task is to be proclaimed not simply by the apostles, but by generations of people after them.
Doug McMasters: That this is a commission not just for these men, but for all his people.
Doug McMasters: That this is something we're to do until the day our Savior returns.
Doug McMasters: That the disciples carry out the ministry of Christ and proclaiming the kingdom of God, the rule of Christ in the lives of undeserving people.
Doug McMasters: And so we too take up the same apostolic charge and message to preach the kingdom of Christ, the rule of Christ in undeserving people's lives, as he brings new birth to them, as he envelops them in within his people, as they identify with him and learn to walk with him.
Doug McMasters: But there's also something here that gives us great comfort as we do it, not just the perpetuating proclamation that we have, but also the promise of his presence.
Doug McMasters: I am with you always.
Doug McMasters: Now, always is a great word to translate this.
Doug McMasters: I will not deny it.
Doug McMasters: But underlying that word always is a Greek idiom.
Doug McMasters: And idioms are sometimes difficult to translate, sometimes they just don't work across language barriers.
Doug McMasters: But in this idiom is this pasos tas the whole of every day.
Doug McMasters: I am with you the whole of every day, even to the end of the age.
Doug McMasters: You see, it's not just the horizon that Jesus promises his presence with us in, it's also the whole of every day that he promises his presence with us in.
Doug McMasters: Now that makes me weep with joy.
Doug McMasters: It's one thing to try to stretch my mind into the day when Christ breaks the clouds and returns and says he's with his people.
Doug McMasters: But isn't it wondrous to also know that that same Savior says, I'm with you the whole of every day.
Doug McMasters: Whether they bring happiness or heartache, whether they show us growing holistically or falling into a hole, he's with us every moment of every day.
Doug McMasters: The presence of the Master to be with us.
Doug McMasters: What a wonderful way that the one we were introduced to as Emmanuel at the beginning of Matthew, God with us, is the one who leaves us at the end of Matthew as Emmanuel, God with us.
Doug McMasters: Jesus present with us.
Doug McMasters: Present with us as we go into all the nations and make disciples of Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: Present with us as those people are baptized and enveloped into the life of the body of Christ.
Doug McMasters: With us as we go through every day of maturing as his disciples, learning to take on board all those things that he commanded us.
Doug McMasters: Present with us as we await the day of his return.
Doug McMasters: Present with us as we see the days will grow evil and worse and worse, but he's still with us, with us until he brings everything to an end and folds up time into eternity.
Doug McMasters: When he brings his people into his presence, blameless and with great joy, with us always, with us here and with us there, but without us never is our Savior.
Doug McMasters: Let's pray.
Doug McMasters: Father, we're so grateful for the gospel that we've been working through these past many, many months.
Doug McMasters: Thank you for what it's shown us about Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: Thank you for the glorious promises that we've received.
Doug McMasters: Thank you for the glorious pattern in Christ as He's welcomed the brokenhearted into his presence.
Doug McMasters: Thank you also for the precepts you give us, for it is in these things that we learn to love our enemies, to love one another, and to love God primarily.
Doug McMasters: And we thank you for this last declaration of your everlasting presence with us.
Doug McMasters: Oh God, thank you for the journey we've been on.
Doug McMasters: And Lord, as we rehearse this journey next week, may we treasure these things as they become part of our lives over these past several months.
Doug McMasters: To your praise and glory, we ask in Christ's name.
Doug McMasters: Amen.