“Then Jesus came to them and said, ““All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
~ Matthew 28:18
Hi James and Ellen,
Do other kids look to you for your help? Do other kids want to go to where you are going? Do other kids ascribe you authority? You are a leader if other kids are looking to you for your help, are going to where you are going and are ascribing you authority. Jesus was the consummate or complete leader. Jesus set the bar as to what it takes to be a leader. As Jesus was God – as God the Son, Jesus had a distinct advantage for being the leader over guys, gals and kids who God – as God the Father, tenured to planet Earth. When Jesus was a little over 30 years old, Jesus was able to innately assume the leadership role that His Father – who was God – as God the Father, embedded in Him to have while living on planet Earth as an incarnate guy. While Jesus was a leader on planet Earth, Jesus arbitrarily selected twelve guys to disciple. Matthew – who had been a tax collector who went by the name of Levi, was one of the guys who Jesus randomly chose to purposively impart or imbue a new religiosity paradigm. Matthew wrote a book about the guy who changed his life. The book that Matthew wrote is the Matthew Book. After writing a carefully articulated narrative of Jesus’ life, Matthew succinctly summed up in Matthew 28 the last events that took place during Jesus’ final days on planet Earth. Matthew’s final chapter in his Matthew Book seems to be some rough notes that Matthew took while accumulating actual incidents and teachings that make up his book. Matthew begins the final chapter in his Matthew Book by recounting two gals – Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, going the day after the Sabbath – which was Saturday but now is Sunday, to where Jesus’ body two days earlier had been entombed. The other Mary was the wife of Clopas and the sister of Jesus’ ma. Matthew in his Matthew Book’s last chapter reports that there was a very violent earthquake that corresponds with an angel of the Lord descending from heaven, going to the tomb where Jesus’ body had been intombed and rolling the stone away that had been rolled there to block the entrance of the tomb. When Mary Magdalene and Clopas’ wife arrived at the tomb where the body of Jesus had been put into, they found this angel – whose clothes were as white as snow and whose appearance looked like lightning, sitting on the stone that he had rolled away from the entrance of the tomb where Jesus’ body had been intombed. When the two gals saw the angel, they were almost as afraid of the angel as the guys were who had been guarding the tomb where Jesus’ body had been intombed. When the guys who had been assigned to guard the tomb where Jesus’ body had been put in saw the angel, they – per Matthew, could not stop shaking and became like guys who had died. Once the angel had calmed the two gals, the angel sent the gals away to tell the disciples the good news that Jesus was no longer in the tomb – that He had arisen from the dead.
Per Matthew’s final notes, the two gals met Jesus on their way to tell the disciples that He had arose from the dead. Jesus told the two gals to continue to go on their way to tell the disciples that He was alive and that they were to go to the Galilee region – where He would find them. When His disciples arrived in the Galilee region, Jesus met them there. Even though some of Jesus’ disciples still had a spirit of doubt, Jesus’ final admonition to His guys was done through the authority that He had which verse 18 very clearly elucidates, “Then Jesus came to them and said, ““All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” What this verse says to your grandpaa is that Jesus had the same authority that His Father – God – as God the Father, had and because He had the very same authority that His Father – God – as God the Father, had, Jesus had every right in the world to mandate his disciples to make disciples or Christ-followers wherever and everywhere on planet Earth and that they were to baptize these disciples or new Christ-follower guys and gals in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son – Who was Jesus, and in the name of the Holy Spirit. Jesus then told His disciples that what He had taught them that that was what He wanted them to teach as they discipled new Christ-follower guys and gals. Jesus’ final words – per Matthew, that He spoke to the eleven remaining guys who He chose to disciple was that He would be with them always – all the way to the end of the age. Even though Jesus’ directive or command – which was driven by the absolute authority that He had in being God – as God the Son, was to His eleven remaining disciples, Jesus’ decree or diktat to be disciple makers and Christ-follower baptizers applies to every guy and gal who makes a decision of faith in accepting as absolute truth and the key for receiving the gift of eternal life which was the ransom payment that Jesus paid with His body and blood when He was hung and nailed unceremoniously to die on a cross.
One of your grandpaa’s cousins about a month ago completed his planet Earth tenure. Fred lived for 77 years before his body finely gave in to the impediments that it suffered with for almost a lifetime. Fred contacted polio when he was a kid. Fred used crutches to get around, his legs were useless and he could do very little with his hands. Your grandpaa remembers his dad physically carrying Fred from the car that Fred drove into the house where your grandpaa’s ma’s dad and ma lived. Fred all his life found jobs and earned a living. Fred married Vonnie. Despite inhibiting handicaps, Fred became the spiritual leader within his extended family and in the churches where he was a member. Fred became a leader as a Jesus disciple. Fred did not let the hand that God dwelt him stop him from living as best as he could a normal life. Fred is an example of a guy willing to serve God despite the obstacles that he had.
Matthew 28 (909)