Preached on Sunday, December 6, 2009
from
Matthew 28:16-17
Theme: This passage encourages us to move from doubtful hesitation to a full-hearted commitment in our obedience to our Lord’s Great Commission.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
This morning, we begin our look into the very last few verses of the Gospel of Matthew—and to the passage that Christians everywhere refer to as the Great Commission. It tells us about that last great command our Lord gave to His disciples, after He was raised from the dead, and before He ascended to the Father:
Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen (Matthew 28:16-20).
What a great passage of Scripture this is! And what a world-changing portion of God’s word it has proven to be! I believe it’s the one passage in all of of Scripture that God has most used to inspire missionaries, throughout the past twenty centuries, to spread of the gospel of His Son into the far reaches of the world! Countless Christians have laid down their lives in obedience to it. And only God can know how much good has done, how many souls have been saved, and how many lives have been transformed because of it.
During our next time together, if the Lord so wills, we’ll talk about the commission itself—our Lord’s great command to go out into the world and make disciples. It will be a wonderful way for us to close out our nearly six-year long study through Matthew’s Gospel.
But before we do, I ask that we turn our attention this morning to the importance of three rather surprising words in the heart of this morning’s passage. They’re found at the end of verse 17—words that, quite frankly, get passed over far too often. To some, they’re a little embarrassing. In a passage that’s suppose to close-out this great gospel-presentation of the resurrected King Jesus, they seem out of place—as if it might have been a mistake to have included them just before the passage that is supposed to send us all out into the world to tell others about Him.
We’re told that, when the gathered disciples saw the resurrected Lord Jesus, they worshiped Him, “but some doubted”.
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Have you ever struggled with doubts in your walk with Jesus? I have. In fact, at one point in my life, I struggled very deeply with doubts. I became a Christian in my teenage years; and, by God’s providence, I was led into a good church where I was taught the Bible and nurtured in the truths of the faith. But after a while, I went to college and took a class in philosophy. It was an experience that really challenged the untested assumptions I had held about my faith in Jesus.
That was a very agonizing time for me. It raised a whole lot of troubling questions about this new-found faith that had grown to become the most precious thing in my life. I remember going to my pastor and telling him about how frustrating those challenges were. And I was even more frustrated—and somewhat surprised—when he responded by patting me on the back and telling me, “I’m glad you’re having your faith challenged in this way. It’ll be good for you.”
But he was right! It was good for me! It turned out that those times of doubt weren’t fatal to my faith at all. They made me ask some tough questions, and seek out sound answers. They drove me to think seriously about the ways other viewpoints were challenging my faith; and about the ways God’s word answered those challenges. Those difficult times of wrestling broke me free of some unstable foundations that I had built my faith upon in my early years; and, in the end, greatly strengthened my trust in the promises of God. Today, I praise God for those dark, difficult times of doubt.
And I wonder if there are some folks here today who really need to hear that. You may have gone through some times of doubt yourself—or are going through them now; and have wondered if there was something wrong with you because of it. You may have even had the misfortune of sharing your struggles with some well-meaning, ‘super-saint’ who condemned your doubts as something sinful—which only drove you more and more into despair. And as a result, when you read the Great Commission, you now feel a little unsure how to respond to it. After all, how can anyone go out into the world and spread a message that they’re not even sure is true?
Well; if that’s where you are today, I hope it encourages you to read in this morning’s passage that even some of our Lord’s apostles—at a time when the resurrected Lord Jesus physically stood right there in front of them—had a struggle with doubt. And I hope you can see that God obviously gave them victory over their doubts; because they then went on to obey the Great Commission and change the world!
That’s why I don’t want for us to move on to the Great Commission until we’ve first dealt with this amazing fact that stands before it—the fact that “some doubted”. I am so very glad that the Holy Spirit has seen fit to include it in His word. It’s was not a mistake that it’s there. Instead, it’s a matter of honest-dealing. It’s a matter of God being real with us. Because of these three words, this passage helps to testify to our own weaknesses in this greatest of all enterprises called the Great Commission; and helps move us from doubtful hesitation to a full-hearted commitment in our obedience to our Lord’s command to “make disciples of every nation”.
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Now; let’s begin by taking the time to understanding the context of these three words, “but some doubted”.
Just before He went to the cross, during His supper with them—and with Judas gone from them—Jesus told His remaining eleven disciples,
“All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written:
‘I will strike the Shepherd,
And the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee” (Matthew 26:31-32).
And then, after He was raised from the dead, He met the women who had come to His tomb and told them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me” (28:10). And so, when we come to our passage, we read that the eleven disciples had done as our Lord told them, and “went away into Galilee . . .”
Now; why Galilee? Why didn’t He have them stay in Jerusalem to hear the Great Commission? I think there were several reasons; and they all help us appreciate the commission itself. First of all, the Lord gave them this commission outside of Jerusalem because Jerusalem had first rejected Him. He had made His “triumphal entry” into the city of Jerusalem as as the long-awaited King of the Jews; but it was only a few days later that the Jewish people of Jerusalem then crucified Him. Earlier, He had said,
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'” (Matthew 23:37-39).
And so, it could not be in Jerusalem—in the place of His rejection—that the rejected King would give His commission to His followers.
Second, He gave it in the regions of Galilee because that’s where the bulk of His earthly ministry had occurred. Galilee was where most of His miracles and His teaching had been done; while Jerusalem was where His sacrifice for us had been made. What better way for our Lord to impress His commission on His disciples than by calling them out from the place of His completed sacrifice and unto the place in which He had modeled a life of ministry for them.
But I think a third and very important reason for giving this commission in Galilee was as a display of God’s great grace. Galilee was despised by the Jews; because it was, to the Jewish people, the edge of the Gentile world. And yet, as Isaiah promised, it would be in “Galilee of the Gentiles” that “[t]he people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Isaiah 9:1-2). Jesus’ commission was for His disciples to go and make disciples of “all nations”; and so, what better place for that commission to be given than at what the Jewish people considered to be the threshold of the “nations” of the world?
And so, to Galilee they went. We’re told that they went “to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them”. We’re not told which mountain this was; but it’s very significant that it was a “mountain”. Someone has once called Matthew “the Gospel of the mountains”; because so many of the significant events it tells us about occurred upon mountains. The devil tempted our Lord on a mountain (4:8). His first great sermon was upon a mountain (chapters 5-7). He prayed alone to His Father on a mountain (14:23). He fed the 4,000 upon a mountain (15:29). He was transfigured before His disciples on a mountain (17:1). A mountain seem to signify an event of great significance in our Lord’s ministry; and so, it’s natural that Matthew would tell us of how His last great command to His disciples was also given on a mountain.
It was there, on this mountain of Galilee, that we’re told that His disciples “saw Him”. And did you know that they had seen the resurrected Lord Jesus several times before this? There were, in the Scriptures, a total of ten recorded times that Jesus made a resurrection appearance to someone before He ascended to the Father1; and of them all, this passage would be telling us about the eighth of those appearances. He had, by this time, already appeared more than once to many of His disciples. And now, on this mountain, we’re told that they all saw Him again—and that they all worshiped Him.
But it’s then that we are struck by these strange words, “but some doubted”. Even after all this—even after the great advantage they had of having Him appear in their presence; even after they had spoken with Him and handled Him; even after He had eaten with them—there were still some who doubted! Apparently not all the disciples doubted; but the testimony of Scripture is that some did.
And I’m glad that the Scriptures tell us that they did. It gives us great hope in our own times of doubt, dear brothers and sisters; because the Bible goes on to tell us that these doubting disciples later went on to fulfill the Great Commission and transform the world!
Clearly, such periods of doubt are not fatal to our usefulness to our Lord.
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Let’s look closer at the details; and consider first . . .
1. THE NATURE OF THE DISCIPLES’ DOUBTS.
And I want to begin by stressing what their doubts were not. They were not a sinful expression of unbelief.
Look back to the passage just prior to this one. There, you see the disciples’ struggle with doubt against the backdrop of the sinful refusal to believe on the part of the Jewish leaders. After Jesus was raised, and after the women who had met the resurrected Lord had left the tomb and had gone on their way to tell the disciples that He was alive, we’re told;
Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened. When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, saying, “Tell them, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.’ And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.” So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day (Matthew 28:11-15).
The soldiers were testifying to the chief priests and elders of the people the very same thing that the women were testifying—that Jesus was alive! But they responded by ordering a cover-up! They weren’t simply struggling with doubts. They were acting out of a wicked, hard-hearted refusal to believe what the facts were telling them—a sinful, willful refusal to bow to what the mind clearly recognizes to be true about Jesus, or to give Him the worship and obedience that He deserves.
That wasn’t what was happening to these disciples up on the mountain. They had already seen the resurrected Lord Jesus. They already confessed that He was alive. And what’s more, they had already gone to Galilee in obedience to His command and were even then in the act of worshiping Him.
I believe it’s helpful to understand what the word—here translated “doubted”—actually means. The word in the original language2 means to waver or hesitate in the sense of being uncertain about taking a particular course of action3. The only other time it appears in the New Testament is in Matthew 14:31. That’s were Peter had gotten out of the boat and walked on the water to the Lord.
Think with me about that story of Peter for a moment. He saw the Lord walking on the water, and the Lord gave him permission to step out of the boat and walk to him. And so long as Peter kept his focus on the Lord, he was able to walk to Him on water. But do you remember how Peter got distracted and looked around at the wind and the waves? He “wavered”. He “hesitated” between two courses of action. On the one hand, he was drawn to walk to the Lord; and on the other, he was overcome by the human impossibility of what he was doing. And so, he began to sink. And when the Lord reached out and grabbed him and pulled him up out of the water, He said, “O you of little faith; why did you doubt”? Or, we might translate it, “Why did you hesitate? Why did you waver?”
That word is the same word that is being used here of the “some” who “doubted” on the mountain.
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Next; let’s consider . . .
2. THE REASON FOR THE DISCIPLES’ DOUBTS.
If it would be accurate to say they were “wavering” or “hesitating”, then what was it that they were wavering and hesitating over? What was the course of action that they were uncertain about taking?
Well; it’s possible that some were still struggling to believe what they were seeing. They had all witnessed the Lord’s crucifixion. They knew that He had been officially declared dead by the Roman authorities, had been wrapped in clothes, and had been sealed in a tomb. And yet, there He stood before them—not just once, but several times!
I’m sure that this is one reason why many professing Christians struggle with doubts today. We might say these doubts come because of the remarkable claims of the faith. Do you remember that one of them—Thomas—struggled greatly with this? Even after Jesus had appeared to the others, Thomas declared, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe” (John 20:25). We sometimes call him “Doubting Thomas”; but I’m not sure that a better name wouldn’t be “Reasonable Thomas”! After all, he was being asked to believe something unspeakably remarkable!
And do you remember how Jesus answered Thomas’ demand? A week or so later, Jesus again appeared to the disciples; and this time came to Thomas and offered to allow him to touch His hands and His side. We’re not told that Thomas touched Him; but we are told that Thomas fell down before Jesus and said, “My Lord and my God!”; and that Jesus then said, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (vv. 28-29). So; perhaps “some doubted” because they still wavered between the evidence of what they were seeing, and the hesitancy to commit to fully believing it.
Another possibility is that some were wavering and hesitating because the very Lord and Master that they had deserted at His betrayal was now standing before them alive! Perhaps they felt doubtful about drawing near to Him because they had been so unfaithful to Him in His hour of trial. How could they dare to believe He would accept them now?
Again, I’m sure that this is why some professing Christians struggle with doubts today. We might say these doubts come from our own failures and shortcomings. Such people believe that they have been so bad, and have lived so unworthily, that they are hesitant to draw near to Him. No one would have felt that hesitancy more than Peter. He had walked very close to the Lord during His earthly ministry; but then fiercely denied Him when He was arrested. Peter’s failure must have made him feel that the Lord would never want to have anything to do with him—let alone accept him if he were to dare approach Him.
And yet, do you remember how Mark tells us in his Gospel that, when the women came to find the tomb of our Lord empty, the angel told them, “But go tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you” (Mark 16:7)? The Lord made it clear that He particularly wanted Peter to come; perhaps because He knew that Peter would hesitate. And so, perhaps some of the others “doubted” because they also felt unworthy to stand before their resurrected Lord.
And still another possibility is that they felt fearful of the implications of His resurrection. After all, the authorities had put Him to death; and were even then making the official declaration that the disciples had stolen His body. And yet, here He stood before them! They could not but speak the truth—and proclaiming that truth may very well cost them their lives!
I am very sure that that’s a reason some professing Christians hesitate and waver! We might say these are doubts that come from the things the faith now demands from us. To come to terms with the fact that Jesus had truly risen from the dead and is now alive means that we must declare Him to the world. And yet, the world does not receive Him; and even goes so far as to laugh at, or shun, or even threaten and kill those who pledge allegiance to Him.
Do you remember how, after Jesus had ascended to the Father, and the Holy Spirit had come, Peter and the others preached Jesus in the very temple in Jerusalem? And do you remember how the authorities commanded them to stop; and Peter said, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).
* * * * * * * * * * *
Now; the fact is that we’re not told what the exact reason is that “some doubted”. But I love it that we’re told that—with them all there worshiping Him, and some doubting—”Jesus came and spoke to them . . .” He took the initiative, and met them in their time of doubt. He then assured them that He, who was about to commission them for the greatest task the world has ever seen had been given all authority in heaven and on earth. And as we know, they went on to change the world.
So; in conclusion, let’s draw . . .
3. SOME LESSONS FROM THE DISCIPLES’ DOUBTS.
The first one I suggest we should draw is that the story that the Bible tells us about the Lord Jesus Christ is true. It isn’t a legend that was made-up for gullible people to believe. One of the testimonies we have of the integrity of the story of the resurrection of our Lord is found right here in this morning’s passage; because if it was a legend, we’d never be told that some of the foundational teachers of our faith—the apostles—themselves struggled with doubts over it.
Another thing I suggest we can learn from the fact that “some doubted” is that our own times of doubt aren’t fatal to our usefulness to the Lord. Those times of doubt and wavering and hesitation can, if handled rightly, lead us to times of great usefulness and devotion to the Lord. Evidence of this is that, a short while after these times of doubt, the Holy Spirit came upon every one of these disciples—even the doubting ones—and so empowered them to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ that they turned the whole world upside-down!
A third thing we can learn from their doubts is that our Lord is patient with those who have doubts. He didn’t scold the disciples for having these kinds of doubts. He didn’t come to them and say, “You disciples over here are the ones that I will use. But you others, who are hesitating and wavering, should immediately leave.” As a church, we should always be patient with those who are struggling in our midst with doubts. Even some of the greatest of saints—the disciples themselves—had times of “wavering” and “hesitating”.
And if I may, let me suggest a fourth thing we can learn from these doubts—and that is, the best way to face them and deal with them. In our times of doubt, we should keep on being faithful to obey the Lord. The disciples may have had some doubts; but they all obeyed Jesus’ command to go to Galilee. And we should also labor to draw all the closer to the Lord in those times of doubt. All the disciples—even the doubting ones—still worshiped Him. And it was to all of them—even the doubting ones—that He drew near.
Let’s be realistic about our doubts. After all, our loving heavenly Father is realistic about them. But by His help, may the words of our Lord to Thomas prove true of us: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).
1These ten appearances were (1) to the women (Matthew 28:9-10); (2) to Mary (Mark 16:9; John 20:11-17); (3) to Simon Peter (Luke 24:34; 2 Corinthians 15:5); (4) to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Mark 16:12-13; Luke 24:13-35); (5) to the apostles without Thomas present (Mark 16:14-18; Luke 26:34-43; John 20:19-23); (6) to the apostles with Thomas present one week later (John 20:24-29; 1 Corinthians 15:5); (7) to the seven disciples by the Sea of Galilee (John 21:1-14ff); (8) to the apostles and possibly the 500 brethren on the Galilean mountain (Matthew 28:16-20; 1 Corinthians 5:6); (9) to James (1 Corinthians 15:7); and (10) to the apostles at the ascension at the Mount of Olives (Luke 24:50-53; Acts 1:4-7). Appearances 1-5 all occurred on the same day as our Lord’s resurrection.
2disazo.
3BAG, p. 252.