Daily Devotion

23 April – Go Therefore

Audio

Alleluia. Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

Today is Wednesday of Easter Week, 23rd of April.

We begin by praising the Lord in the words of Psalm 113

Praise the Lord!
Praise, O servants of the Lord,
    praise the name of the Lord!

² Blessed be the name of the Lord
    from this time forth and forevermore!
³ From the rising of the sun to its setting,
    the name of the Lord is to be praised!

⁴ The Lord is high above all nations,
    and his glory above the heavens!
⁵ Who is like the Lord our God,
    who is seated on high,
⁶ who looks far down
    on the heavens and the earth?
⁷ He raises the poor from the dust
    and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
⁸ to make them sit with princes,
    with the princes of his people.
⁹ He gives the barren woman a home,
    making her the joyous mother of children.
Praise the Lord!

Glory to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
as It was in the beginning, is
now, and shall be forever. Amen.

The Scripture appointed for today is Matthew 28:16-20.

¹⁶ Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷ And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. ¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Reflection

What makes the Great Commission so great? 

No such phrase is ascribed to Matthew 28:18-20, unlike the Great Commandment in Matthew 22:37-40. The label was first attributed to Dutch missionary Justinian von Welz (1621-88) and popularized 200 years later later by Hudson Taylor, the prominent pioneering missionary to China and founder of OMF.

Regardless of the label, the two phrases – “make disciples of all the nations” and “baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”–  are unique to Matthew 28:19 in all of Scriptures. 

The first phrase is Jesus’ mission for us, and the second is God’s mandate to us. 

The Father’s mission was the sending of the Son (John 3:16, 20:21). The Son’s mission was revealing God the Father and sending the Church (aka. us) to the world (John 14:9, 20:21). And the Holy Spirit’s mission is to glorify Jesus through us (John 16:14). Jesus’ command is for us to participate in this trinitarian mission.

But there is an order to Matthew 28:18-20. The going to make disciples, baptizing and teaching them comes as an outcome of “to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always…”. Jesus was talking about an obedience to and a relationship with Him.

Jesus’ mission to us to be disciple-makers is important. However, what precedes His mission to us is His mandate for us to follow and live in Jesus Christ! In other words, our mandate as authentic disciples authorizes, substantiates, credentializes, embodies our mission to be intentional disciple-makers.

Peter alluded to this mandate of sharing in God’s life through Jesus Christ. The outcome is exuberant. We are called to proclaim the excellencies of Him. He has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). How will we proclaim God’s excellencies? We can do so if we have tasted His excellencies. We must continue to taste them in the mundane, earthy, and complex realities of our everyday life.

Jesus bid us to come follow Him. He invites us to share in that eternal triune communion of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That’s our great privilege afforded us by the blood of Jesus Christ. Come obey, experience, love and be loved by our triune God daily! 

Out of that dailiness and reality of authentic discipleship, let’s go and make some disciples in Jesus. We can do this wherever we are. Shall we?

We leave you with the hymn, Go make of all disciples.

Go make of all disciples
We hear the call O Lord
That comes from Thee our Father
In Thy eternal Word
Inspire our ways of learning
Through earnest fervent prayer
And let our daily living
Reveal Thee everywhere

Go make of all disciples
Baptizing in the name
Of Father Son and Spirit
From age to age the same
We call each new disciple
To follow Thee O Lord
Redeeming soul and body
By water and the Word

Go make of all disciples
We at Thy feet would stay
Until each life’s vocation
Accents Thy holy way
We cultivate the nature
God plants in every heart
Revealing in our witness
The Master Teacher’s art

Go make of all disciples
We welcome Thy command
Lo I am with you always
We take Thy guiding hand
The task looms large before us
We follow without fear
In heaven and earth Thy power
Shall bring God’s kingdom here

Link to today’s Morning Office