Saturday, June 09,
2012, 6:44 a.m. – The Lord woke me with the song “Jesus, Lead Me” playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant
is listening. I read Matthew 28 (NIV
’84):
After the Sabbath, at
dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to
look at the tomb.
There was a violent
earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the
tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning,
and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they
shook and became like dead men.
The angel said to the
women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was
crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the
place where he lay. 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.”
So the women hurried
away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.
Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his
feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell
my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
While the women were
on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief
priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the
elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling
them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away
while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him
and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they
were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to
this very day.
Then the eleven
disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.
When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then 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.”
My Understanding: Jesus
Christ, God the Son, was crucified on a cross for our sins, although he had
done no wrong. They killed him because they were jealous of him, and because they
felt threatened by his ministry, fearing their own loss of control of their own
centers of power. They refused to believe him for who he was/is or to believe
in him as their Messiah and Lord. They despised and rejected him, and so they
hung him on a cross to die, as though he was a criminal. And, once he died, he
was buried in a tomb with guards posted outside the tomb and the tomb sealed for
fear his disciples might come to take away his body and then to claim that he
had risen from the dead.
At dawn on the first day of the week, our Sunday, Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary – the mother of James and Joses - went to look at
the tomb. There was a violent earthquake. An angel of the Lord rolled back the
stone that was in front of the tomb and sat on it. The guards were so afraid
they became like dead men. The women must have been frightened, as well,
because the angel told them not to be afraid. And, then the women were given
their commission by the angel of the Lord.
Their Commission
The angel told the women the good news that Jesus Christ had
risen from the dead, just as he had said he would. They were to come and see
that he was indeed gone, and then they were instructed to: 1) Go quickly, 2)
Tell Jesus’ disciples, and 3) Tell them the good news that Jesus had risen from
the dead, that he was going ahead of them into Galilee, and there they would
see him. So, the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy,
and ran to tell his disciples. Jesus met them. They worshiped him. And, then he
commissioned them to: 1) Not be afraid, 2) Go, 3) Tell Jesus’ brothers, and 4)
Tell them to go to Galilee, and there they would see Jesus.
“While they were on their way,” i.e. while they were going,
obeying and fulfilling the commission given to them by the angel and by Jesus
Christ, opposition to their message arose. False reports were spread. Lies were
told to try to invalidate the women’s testimony. And, the source of those lies
was the same as those who had hung Jesus Christ on the cross to die. It was the
religious leaders – chief priests and elders of the people – who devised a
wicked plan to squelch the true report of Jesus Christ’s miraculous resurrection.
The women obviously reached the disciples (the brothers),
and the disciples must have listened to the women, because the disciples went
to where Jesus, via the two women, had instructed them to go. When they saw
Jesus they, too, worshiped him, yet some of them still had their doubts. Then
Jesus gave them their commission on the basis of the unlimited authority given
to him by the Father. They were to: 1) Go, 2) Make disciples of all nations, 3)
Baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and 4) Teach them to
obey everything Jesus has commanded us. And, the promise is that Jesus will be
with us always, to the very end of the age.
Our Commission
Although the instructions to the women were to them
specifically, and not to us generally, I do believe there are some common elements
in what they were instructed to do, and in what Jesus Christ requires of us,
that we can learn from. And, I do believe the commission he gave to his
disciples is to be applied to all of us who are his followers, so I will also
look at some of the parallels between what he told the women specifically and
what he told his disciples, which is to be applied to all Christ’s followers.
Do Not Fear
The first instructions (or encouragement) given to the women
by the angel and by Jesus was to not be afraid. I know the words “Do not fear,”
“Do not fret,” or “Do not become anxious” are all throughout the New Testament,
and Jesus spoke those words often. I believe that is because “fear” is the
direct opposite of “faith,” and is, in fact, the greatest hindrance to faith
and obedience to Jesus Christ, as well as it is one of Satan’s greatest tools
against us to try to defeat us and to get us to be discouraged, to give up, and
to not obey Christ. We cannot follow Christ in obedience and be his witnesses
and messengers of the gospel if we are giving way to fear. Fear (giving way to
it) and faith don’t mix.
We, as humans, are fearful creatures. We fear what others
will think of us. We fear their rejection of us. We fear that we won’t say
things the right way and that people will mock us or make fun of us. We fear
our future and all the “What ifs.” We fear being hated, despised, having lies
told about us, and being persecuted for our faith, etc. We don’t want to stand
out. We, as humans, want to blend in with the world so we will be accepted,
loved, honored and valued. We want people to like us. We want to be included.
We like to be well spoken of.
Yet, we must choose to either conform to the world and its
pattern, and become like everyone else, so we will be liked by man, or to
conform to Christ and his pattern and will for our lives, which will get us to
be hated, despised, rejected and persecuted for our faith and witness for
Christ by man, yet we will be pleasing unto God. Obedience to Christ will make
us stand out. We will be different. And, we will be rejected. So, we must
choose between giving way to fear, or putting our trust and faith in the Lord.
We must, as the women did, obey with joy even if we are shaking in our boots. And,
we must know that some of our greatest persecutors will come out of the church,
not from the world.
Go and Tell
The angel told the women to “Go quickly.” Jesus said simply,
“Go.” Jesus told his disciples to “Go.” Encarta Dictionary says that this is a
military order. It is a command from a commanding officer (God/Jesus) to his
soldiers (the disciples/us). It means to leave where you are and what you are
presently doing and go to another place and do what you have been ordered to do.
We can’t stay stationary and comfortable and obey Christ. Obedience involves
change. It involves risk. It involves leaving what is “safe,” comfortable, and the
known to go out to something we might consider risky, certainly not in our
comfort zone, and most likely to something or to someone we have not previously
known or experienced. And, quickly means to do it immediately and without
reservation.
The women were instructed to tell the disciples (the
brothers), and the disciples were told to make disciples of all nations. Translated
to today, we are to tell the good news of the gospel even to those who are
Christ’s followers or to those who profess to be Christ’s followers, because
some of them may not have heard the truth of the gospel. They may have heard a
false gospel message, and they may have bought into the lies of Satan. Or, they
may have drifted away from pure devotion to Jesus Christ, and they need to be
brought back into a right relationship with Christ, so they need to be reminded
of what they had heard and what they had professed to believe. And, we need to
tell those who have never heard the gospel or those who have heard, but have never
received Christ, the good news. Yet, we need to do more than just evangelize
the world. We are instructed to make followers of Christ of these new believers,
teaching them to obey Christ’s commands.
The women were instructed to tell the disciples the good
news that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead, just as he said, that Jesus was
going ahead of them to Galilee, that they were to go there, and Jesus would
meet with them there. As applied to our lives today, I see here that we can
take from this that we should tell Christ’s followers (and potential followers)
that the risen Christ has gone ahead of us to heaven, and there he is preparing
a place for us. Yet, he has not left us comfortless. He has sent the Holy
Spirit to us to indwell the lives of his followers, and there, within our
hearts, we can go into God’s presence each day and meet with him there to
receive guidance, instruction, counsel and direction for our daily lives. So,
we should encourage one another to meet with God/Jesus each day in prayer, in
the study of his word, and in obeying what he teaches us.
The disciples were told to “Go” and to “make disciples of
all nations.” We, as Christ’s disciples, are to teach them to obey Christ and
his commands. Jesus Christ commands that for us to come to faith in him we must
turn from our sins daily and daily choose to follow him in obedience and
surrender of our wills to his will for our lives. This is what we are to teach
other followers of Christ and potential followers of Christ.
We are to go, we are to make disciples of all people, we are
to baptize them, and we are to teach them to obey Christ’s commands, including
the commands to repent of our sins and to obey Christ and his commandments, as
well as the commands to love God and to love others as we love ourselves. All
of us are commanded to do this by Jesus Christ. If we are not doing this in one
way or another, then we are not obeying Christ’s commands. May we all desire to
obey Christ in all things and to go where he leads us, to do what he commands
us to do, and to say what he has instructed us to say. Human lives are at
stake.
Jesus, Lead Me / An Original Work / July 22, 2011
Jesus, lead me all the way.
Be my hope and be my stay.
Gently lead me where I should go,
So Your Spirit, I want to know.
Open up my heart to You.
Fill me with Your love and truth.
Make my heart want to obey.
Be my Lord today. Gently lead always.
Jesus, lover of my soul,
Cleanse my heart, and make me whole;
Be transformed in my heart today,
As I turn from my sin and pray.
Make Your will known to my heart.
May I not from You depart.
How I long to hear You now,
As I humbly bow. Jesus, hear me now.
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