All authority in heaven and on earth [Matt 28]

All authority in heaven and on earth has given to me 

Matthew 27:62-28:20
Matt 28:18-20

Have you ever felt that your life was in danger?  When I was about 4^th grade, I was so sick with diarrhea and vomiting and I felt that my life was hanging on thin thread. The flickering life could be snubbed away in matter of moments. I feel that all men would face such moments of life in their life time. There was one who felt such things and described his feeling in this way: When King Saul chased after the life of David, and David was about an inch away from his death, he felt this way

2 Samuel 22:5 The waves of death swirled about me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. ⁶ The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. (2Sa 22:5 NIV)

What went through the minds of the disciples when they saw Jesus was crucified? In the movie the passion of Christ, I saw Mary, the mother of Jesus clinching a handful of dirt in her hands as the nail was piercing through Jesus’ hands.

We human being suffer many things such as sickness and pain from all kinds of illness. Eventually all these lead us to death. So sufferings are prelude of coming death. In this aspect we all fear any suffering of this life. Also we fear death because we feel that it obliterate our lives to unknown or to a total loss of life itself.

Such true reality of human race is briskly depicted in and through the cross of Jesus. The final outcome of life is death whether one is willing to accept or not. That death leaves us a void and emptiness. As the disciples saw Jesus was laid in his tomb, their mind was filled with that void and emptiness. Also death is the final outcome of sin as we have seen what happened on the cross. At the same time, death is the God’s judgment on sin. In this periscope, we must look at today’s passage; resurrection that overcomes death. Also Jesus overcoming death is a new opening for human race; one as a new era and the other as new institution, the kingdom of God.

In this resurrection narrative, two things are shown; God’s determinative will to raise Jesus from the dead and God’s will to begin his kingdom through His Son Jesus. By understanding these two wills of God, we must reshape our view for the world and for our own lives.   

A.      God demonstrated his will and power to raise Jesus from the dead.

On Thursday afternoon, Jesus was crucified in full view of hundreds or even thousands of people. He died about 3 pm and was buried in a tomb. All these were seen by the disciples and women who followed Jesus. What might be in the minds of these disciples as well as other women, Mary Magdalene or Jesus mother Mary?  With their own eyes, they saw Jesus lying breathless, cold and rigid, motionless body being laid in a tomb.

After three days of break, reality hit hard to these women; Jesus is absent. They cannot talk to him and they cannot see him and they cannot serve him. In their mind, they could not escape from thinking on the four things: death, sin, men, God or Jesus. How did people handle death? There are two different responses to the death of Jesus.

The first one is the response of the chief priests and Pharisees.  They were worried that Jesus’ claim might turn out to be true; his resurrection in three days. So they requested Pilate to secure the tomb.

V65-66

Upon approval of Pilate they sealed the tomb very tightly. They put a huge stone at the mouth of the tomb and put a seal around this stone, like applying concrete mix in between the stone and the wall of the tomb. It was sealed air tight. In addition they put a guard in front of the tomb. In this way, no one can get in and no one, even resurrected Jesus, can get out of the tomb.  What does this do? There can’t be any foul play with dead body. In this way they secured Jesus body as securely as possible.  Simply even if he resurrects, he cannot get out and as long as he stays there as a dead body or living one, it does not matter. What does this tell us about?  This is a strong expression of rejection of God’s power and his authority. This is also an exercise of their utmost will of control and authority on Jesus’ life.   But can it stand or can it be possible?

Second the response of the women.

[v1]As the Sabbath day was getting over, i.e. at the dawn of the first day of the week[Sunday], two Maries went to the tomb.  Though Jesus was condemned as a blasphemer and rebellion, they did not buy such arguments against Jesus. These two Maries loved Jesus and believed his innocence. Simply they could not let Jesus go without their personal touch of love and farewell. So at this early morning they went to the tomb. But here they witnessed a remarkable thing.

V 2-4

An Angel came with an earth quake and this angel removed the stone that was at the mouth of the tomb. In this way the mouth of the tomb was wide open. The angel sat on the stone in his glaring white appearance.  At seeing the angel,  the guards were knocked out like dead men.

Men in their authority and power made the tomb air tight so that no one can come out and no one can get it. But this was a foolish thing. God sent his angel with his mighty power. The angel got ready the tomb for Jesus resurrection. The tightly sealed tomb was loosened and the huge stone was rolled back. As the result, the tomb was wide open for Jesus to come out and even many can get in to see the tomb.  In the book of John, it is said that Peter and John went into the tomb and saw the detail findings; well folded up burial clothes.

What was the angel doing sitting on the stone? In his might power and glory, he is making sure that all these things may be known to the believers and no one can disturb Jesus resurrection and no one can remove the evidence of Jesus resurrection until it is seen by the believers.

Over all what can we say about what the angel did? It is God who sent the angel. It was God who gave a clear message; no one can deter Jesus’ resurrection!  Men with the best of their wisdom and power cannot deter God and his plan.  Resurrection is not in men’s mind. Men live under such conviction and premise. Men cannot overcome that limitation. But God in his might power, made a wide open door for resurrection.  God raised him from the dead and Jesus came back to life.  But could these women figure out what they saw? To the eyes of these women, simply all these findings were beyond comprehension and understanding.  Unless explained, they were totally at a loss or in confusion!

The angel gives message to the women [5-7]

V5-6. ⁵ The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. ⁶ He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay

It was obvious that he is not an ordinary man but an angel because of his appearance. This angel gave them an explanation of what these women were seeing.  The earth quake, rolled away stone, and angelic being can be explained in one thing; Jesus has risen. God sent his angel and did prepare all things for Jesus to come out of the tomb in his resurrection.  God worked through his angel to do one thing; the resurrection of Jesus. He made sure that this finding is seen by these women and these women must understand what they saw.

Simply God worked out all these to unveil the truth of Jesus resurrection to these women as well as to his disciples. 

To confirm this, the angel told them to do one thing: Come and see the place where he lay! In the tomb, there was no Jesus' body. His burial linens were well folded up and left at the side. Simply in the tomb,  Jesus’ body was absent! The tomb was empty! How can one explain the absence of Jesus?  He has risen just as he said. The empty tomb! Resurrection is the only reasonable understanding. 

Also the angel delivered another message:  Then go quickly to his disciples and tell them that Jesus has risen and he is going ahead of them to Galilee. There you will see him! Jesus will see the disciples in a particular place in Galilee. The risen Jesus will go there in order to meet them all. So they must go as quickly as possible so that they may meet the risen Jesus. We will discuss the significance of this message later.

Jesus met the women[8-10]

What was their feeling as they heard of Jesus resurrection? V8 they were afraid and yet filled with joy. The death has been overcome. Jesus came back to life again so that they can talk and love and they can serve him again. As soon as they heard of Jesus’ resurrection, this hope revived. In their mind there was something exciting was happening; actually their mind was racing to see the risen Jesus! As these things were going on, what happened?

V9-10. ⁹ Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

Jesus met them and quickly they recognized that it was Jesus. Since their minds were already well tuned to anticipation of meeting Jesus,  as soon as risen Jesus met them, it was not strange at all.  They all knew it was risen Jesus and they were extremely happy to see him.
 It is interesting how it describes the meeting: they came to him and clasped his feet and worshipped him.  In other word they hold on to Jesus feet and worshipped him.   Risen Jesus was not a ghost. He is like one of us with body; the body that was nailed on the cross came back to life. Literally Jesus has overcome the power of death. He neutralized all the authority of death. He destroyed death itself! An impossible became possible!  The dead came back to life! What a joy to see the new life  

What did Jesus say to them?

V10¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

 The angel gave these women the message to deliver to Jesus’ disciples. Jesus is going to meet them in Galilee.  Here Jesus is giving them the same message again.  Through this, we can discern that this meeting in Galilee would be a very important one. We will explore its importance in the next paragraph.

Guards report and the chief priests and elders’ scheme  to discredit resurrection

As we discussed the guards saw the angel but they were knocked down and were not given any message about Jesus’ resurrection or any message where to meet Jesus. But what did these guards know? They knew that an angel appeared to them with an earthquake. They knew that the stone was rolled away and the tomb was opened wide. They knew that Jesus body was gone. How did they or could they understand these things? They understood in their frame of mind, which is devoid of truth. What is the frame of their minds? They denied Jesus to be the Son of God and they denied God ‘s mighty power and his authority. In such mind set, death rules and they could not overcome it.  So how did they handle the findings of the tomb?

V11-15. Through deception, they suppress the very evidences of the truth of God. They did this in order to uphold their power and their authority and their understanding.

Even now this is the way how the people of unbelief handle the truth of God; suppress the truth in order to uphold their power and their will. For such people, the ending point is clear death and eternal judgment.  Paul says this in Romans 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,

The most important truth in human race is Jesus resurrection. When they suppress the evidences of the resurrection, there is no hope for them.

B.      Jesus was raised to be the king in order to uphold God’s rule on the earth. [16-20]

On each of the Gospels different aspect of resurrection was described. Mark and Mathew are somewhat similar, putting more emphasis on the significance of Jesus resurrection on Jesus’ command. In the other three gospels, records of Jesus resurrection appearances were in or near Jerusalem. But in Matthew, it is all focused on one event that happened not in or near Jerusalem but in Galilee. So in Matthew two things stands out.  First Jesus’ resurrection is connected to the event of God’s kingdom. Second this event is very closely tied to a particular location in Galilee, where the vision of God’s kingdom was greatest. To match these two, the context of this meeting or meeting place is so important.   The narrative of this truth is all focused on one event; Jesus meeting at certain place in Galilee. So it is said three times. 26:32 soon after Jesus prediction of disciple’s abandonment of Jesus; by the angel 28:7 and by Jesus 28: 10.

It was important for Jesus to meet 11 disciples in a particular place in Galilee;

V16¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.

 The location by itself has no meaning; the location and what happened there that sets a particular spiritual experience that might help understand what Jesus was about to say are important. What was the occasion of profound spiritual significance, particularly in Galilee?

In order to find the significance of the ministry in Galilee, I like to note on events described in the Gospel Mark. In this Gospel, there are two stages of Jesus ministry in Galilee: Early Galilean ministry and later Galilean ministry. In the later Galilean ministry begins with a question of who Jesus is. This period concluded as Jesus asked his disciples who Jesus was for them near Caesarea Philippi, far northern end of Galilee.  Peter confessed that Jesus is the Son of the living God; in this confession, Peter as well as all other disciples had a clear conviction that Jesus is the Messiah and He is going to restore the kingdom Israel/of God. Here they dreamed that all the eleven disciple would be powerful members of the coming kingdom, may be serving as a cabinet member of that kingdom such as secretary of defense or secretary of justice, secretary of state. This hope was real and possible because they firmly believed that Jesus is the Messiah God promised to send.  As we read the passage, it will be clearer what went on in their minds.

¹⁴ They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." ¹⁵ "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" ¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." ¹⁷ Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. ¹⁸ And I tell you that you are Peter,¹ and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades² will not overcome it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be¹ bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be² loosed in heaven." (Mat 16:1 NIV)

Peter was offered the key to the kingdom of heaven and Jesus was going to build His church in such conviction. It was an amazing hope and vision. This vision has to do with the beginning of the church and with the kingdom of God.  How great would it be that Peter would have the key for the kingdom of God! What about the rest of the disciples? There was no question in their minds that they would be part of this great kingdom, of which Jesus is the King!

Also we know that soon after this confession, this hope was stunned or crushed by Jesus plan to suffer and die by the hands of religious leaders.  So as we read carefully we come to know that their hope and vision for the kingdom of God began to degrade from this point on because of Jesus prediction of Jesus death.  As Jesus died, their dream crashed into pieces. Rom 6:3 say in this way; ³ Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death….

Now that death is being finished and they must restore that vision and that hope again. –the hope must be restored  not in the context of pre-crucifixion but in the context of ‘crucifixion’ not in human zeal and power but by the power of Jesus sacrifice; the hope is for the kingdom of God.

This is further described in Rom 6: ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
So now the kingship Jesus was about to declare and the kingdom that Jesus was about to embark demanded that the disciples must go back to the same mindset which they had when the confessed Jesus as the Son of the living God. Here for Jesus, two things are needed in this particular place in Galilee.  1. The disciples must re-confess or reassert their confession that Jesus is the Son of the Living God, the Messiah. 2. They must have revived hope and vision for that kingdom, the kingdom of God. In or out of the deadness, the resurrected Jesus is the catalyst and the source and the substance of that vision and hope. To do so, this place was so important for the disciples as well as for Jesus.

Now they are all gathered at a certain place in Galilee. It reminded them of their confession that Jesus is the Son of the living God, the coming Messiah.  By recognizing Jesus as the Son of God anew, what does it mean to his disciples? In this new inauguration of the kingship and kingdom, what is the next? How can they as Jesus disciples work on this kingdom or participate in king’s rule?  In this perspective, we can read the next passages; Jesus commands to his disciples.

The disciples meet the risen Jesus

V17¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted

As we see in this passage, some of the 11 were so sure of Jesus resurrection and honored him by worshipping him. Here what they did to him was ‘worship’. It clearly indicates that they recognized Jesus as the one who overcame the power of death and was proven to be the Son of the living God.  This word is used to describe what the women did to the risen Jesus. In this way the women as well as these disciples came to have full grip on the true identity of Jesus’ deity as the Son of God. This recognition comes with the understanding that Jesus is the Messiah who came to save and establish a new kingdom Israel.  

But some had doubt in their mind; still the power of death was lingering in their mind and weren’t sure of any particular meaning or significance of risen Jesus.  

But unconcerned with such doubt, Jesus told them what he has attained through his death and based on the new authority, Jesus commanded his disciples. Why was Jesus not concerned about their doubts? We do not know for certain. But in the context of this command, we can fairly assert that by obeying or through carrying out Jesus commands, the disciples would capture the full meaning and power of the resurrection.  

It is very interesting to know that the resurrection of Jesus is not just or only a fact but it carries a greater significance.  Only when one comes to have full grip of this significance, he can capture the certainty of Jesus’ resurrection along with its power and impact on our lives.  Then what are the associated truths on Jesus’ resurrection?

God has given Jesus all authority of heaven and on earth.

V18. . ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Jesus declares that he has received  all authority in heaven and on earth from God.  I like to explore this in three ways:

Jesus has authority in heave as well as on earth.

This covers the entire sphere of human existence.  In the beginning of creation we were in the heavenly realm. But by lure of Satan, we fell into sin and fell out this ‘heavenly realm’ thrown away from the garden of Eden. 

Revelation 11:15 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever." ¹⁶ And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, ¹⁷ saying: "We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. (Rev 11:15 NIV)

Soon after this, the fall of Satan is described in Rev 12.  

Rev 12:3-4 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. ⁴ Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. (Rev 12:3 NIV)

As we seen in these two passages, the Satan has been defeated and was thrown down from heaven and Jesus took the supreme authority with God. Now Jesus has authority in heaven as well as on earth.

This hope was also seen when Jesus was questioned by the high priest Caiaphas; Matthew 26:64 "You have said so," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."

The death has been the utmost authority and power over human life. Satan exerted his power over us through our sins. But Jesus has overcome the utmost enemy, Satan by his powerful weapon, sin and death. It is more succinctly described in Ephesians.

Ephesians 1:19b …That power is the same as the mighty strength ²⁰ he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, ²¹ far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. ²² And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, (Eph 1:18 NIV)

Practically what does it mean to his disciples as well as to us? Since he has the authority, in his discretion, there is nothing that Jesus cannot do for us. He can do anything for us;

The ultimate hope in this is that Jesus has the authority to raise us up to him.

2 Corinthians 4:14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself.

John 6:39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.

What was the reason that God gave him the highest authority?

It is written in Phil 2:6—9. God gave Jesus the authority, not just because he is his own son but because he obeyed fully to the point of death. Men disobeyed God and stood rebellion against God. But for the first time his son fully obeyed even to the point of death. This was the very reason why God upheld high Jesus’ power and authority. By doing so God expressed his will to call all people to obedience. So all the people of God’s kingdom will be men and women of obedience of which Jesus is the first and greatest.

Now what is the implication of Jesus’ authority on the disciple’s life?

In this newly give authority, Jesus became the supreme king and he embarks the kingdom of God as the king. Like this kingdom of God has begun.  A new beginning embarks a new era through Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus, the king of the kingdom of God,  will implement the ultimate goal of God fully with finality.  So when we see the history of mankind, we must see in this perspective; It is well depicted in Daniel’s vision in ch 7. Here all human kingdoms are beastly in their character. But the last kingdom is of the one like son of man.  So this last kingdom, the kingdom of God has the character of the Son of Man.

How will the kingdom with such particular character of the Son of man expand on the earth?

V19¹⁹ 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,

a.       Jesus is commanding his 11 disciples to make positive move and act. As the disciples of Jesus the supreme king, the disciples must not be deterred by any conditions of this world. The disciples are the delegate of the supreme king Jesus. Likewise we are the delegates of the supreme king. We are the sole owner of the kingdom truth, sole possessor of the Spirit of the King, and implementer of that truth as the delegates of  Jesus authority. 

b.      All these will be carried on through the way of discipleship; The discipleship is what happens in the relationship between a student and a teacher. There is teaching and there is learning. This is the way of relationship within and for the kingdom of God. In this regard, what we are doing is in accordance of God’s purpose and in line with Jesus command. In order to be a part of God’s kingdom, discipleship must be an essential part of life.

c.       Disciple making is through baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the son and of the holy spirit. This may be considered as a simply formulae to perform a baptism.  It comprises of the entire truth of God that are revealed through God the father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
Here baptism means to immerse someone into something. Whatever God’s truth revealed and reflected through the triune God, one has to be immersed into it so that they may become children of God and God’s kingdom people.

d.      Matthew 28:20a and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
In the discipleship the final outcome must be bringing out an obedience to Jesus’ teaching. Obedience is the best expression of one’s honor to God. So when one obeys Jesus’ teaching, God is happy. As we know Jesus obeyed God the Father even to the point of death. This is the essence of the spirit of Christ. So the same obedience must be in Jesus’ disciples and his kingdom people.

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Mat 28:20 NIV).

As children of God, Jesus promises that he would be with us until we rise up to him in glory as we carry on Jesus’ command. Practically what does it mean to these disciples or to us? It is well described in Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?.... ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,¹ neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.