Jesus's Final Words On Earth

Matthew 28:16-20

People are always interested in someone’s last words, whether it’s right before they die, before they leave for a long time, or before they retire.  We consider them especially important, as they usually contain what the person considers especially vital and critical.  This passage today is Jesus’s last words before His ascension and return into heaven.

About forty days has passed since the morning of Jesus’s resurrection, and now He he has taken the disciples to the Mount of Olives, where He will ascend back into heaven (vs. 16).  This group that accompanied Jesus were more than just the eleven remaining apostles, but also many other people who had followed Him during His ministry.  Most of them had come to believe in Him as the Messiah, but as Matthew records here, some of those in the group that day had some doubts (vs. 17).  This might have been the first time since Jesus’s crucifixion that they were seeing Him, and they were not sure if this was really true.  Perhaps those doubts were laid to rest after they saw Jesus ascend into heaven, or when the Holy Spirit came a few days later.  Or maybe, like some people, they never truly came to believe.

The time of Jesus’s humiliation at the hands of His enemies and of Satan were now completely over.  All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus!  This was the first thing that He reassured His disciples of before He left earth (vs. 18).  He has the authority, not Satan, nor any of the enemies of our faith.  When Jesus gave us His further instructions, we can rest assured that He can and will give us the authority and power to accomplish it.

Verses 19 and 20 are often called the Great Commission.  Jesus commissioned His disciples to go into the whole world and witness to others, telling them of the Gospel, baptizing and teaching them, and that commission has now fallen on us.  We can go out in faith and trust to tell the world about Jesus.  He has given us His authority.  We need to be obedient and tell others about Jesus, and salvation in His Name.  It is a commission, not an option.  Also, our job doesn’t end the minute someone gets saved and accepts Jesus as their Savior.  We are to teach new converts as well.  So often people witness, the person comes to saving faith, and then they are left to flounder, never learning from His Word and growing in their faith.  Jesus had said we were to teach them what He had taught the disciples.

Are we witnessing?  Has there ever been a time for you when a very important piece of mail never made it to you?  It got lost in the mail?  God has an important message for the world, and we are in charge of delivering it.  This message is much more important than some piece of mail, and we must not hold on to it and fail to deliver it.  Also, would we warn a neighbor if there was a fire in their building, or there was a tornado warning they hadn’t heard?  Of course we would.  This is more serious than that.  We need to get this message out.  We can do it because Jesus is with us.

In verse 19 Jesus affirmed the truth of the Trinity - One God in three Persons.  Jesus referred to God as Father many times, one example being John 5:17-18.  Jesus Himself is referred to as Divine in John 1:1.  The New Testament, in Romans 8:11, credits the Holy Spirit with the Resurrection.  The Three are a unit, no one more or less important.  One God in three Persons.

Jesus closes His final words with the promise that He will be with us always.  Though He is not physically with us like He was when He was on earth, He is with us through the Holy Spirit which indwells every believer.  If we are saved, the Holy Spirit will never leave us!  What a blessed promise this is!  There have been numerous times in my life where things looked so bleak and terrible.  This promise has been a true life-saver, one I have clung to.  Knowing He is with me and will never leave me has carried me through those bad times.