“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.’
– Matthew 28:18
So Matthew 28:18 are the words that begin the great commission, the great commission that we say in the church I pastor every single week when we scatter from our worship gathering. And it all starts with a confession of the authority of Jesus over everything in heaven and on earth.
In light of Christ’s authority, we pray that God will help us to boldly proclaim the good news of Christ. We pray that the gospel of Christ’s Lordship will be proclaimed among the unreached peoples of the world.
So this commission in Matthew 28:18 to go and make disciples of the nations is grounded in a reality in a truth that Jesus has all authority over the nations, all authority over every life. So why do we go and make disciples? Why do we go and share the gospel, and lead people to be baptized, and identification with Him and teach them to obey everything he has commanded? Because he is Lord.
This is what drives us. This is the confession of faith that we see all throughout the Book of Acts. God has made this Jesus who was crucified both Lord and Christ. When you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. It all revolves around Jesus’s Lordship, and this is why we go. This is why we make disciples, because Jesus is Lord.
Philippians 2, 9 through 11, “One day, every knee is going to bow. Every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the father.” Sometimes I hear people say, “I’ve decided to make Jesus Lord of my life.” The reality is though, you really didn’t have a choice in the matter. Jesus is Lord over your life. The question is not whether or not he is Lord. The question is, will you bow the knee to his Lordship now or will you bow the knee to his Lordship when it is too late?
Matthew 28:18 Shows Us the Authority Given to Our Savior
Jesus is Lord. The question is, when will we realize this and surrender our lives to his Lordship? This is salvation. It’s surrendering our lives to the Lordship of Jesus, to his sufficiency, to save us from our sins and his supremacy as Lord of our lives. This is what disciple-making is all about. It’s calling people to submit to Jesus as Lord, and we must do this.
And when we realize this, we realize all of us, every single one of us, must obey this commission. Think about the people around you in your life right now, today, people you work with, the people you live with, around, every single face you see will one day bow and confess Jesus as Lord. Every single one of them. That is not in question. So the only thing in question is will they bow to Jesus now or will they bow to Jesus when it is too late?
And this is where you and I come in, because we know that Jesus is Lord, and we know that the only way people can be saved from their sins is if they turn and trust in him as Lord. So we must share this message of Matthew 28:18 with people right around us, with the faces we see, with the coworkers and neighbors and family members and friends that are right around us. We must tell them Jesus is Lord. This is what we must do today. Like with urgency, tell them, “Jesus is Lord. Jesus died on the cross. He’s risen from the grave.” He’s Lord over their lives. So the only way they can have eternal life is through trusting in Jesus as Lord. We must tell people that right around us and far from us.
Prayer For The Mappila People
And today we’re about to pray for the Mappila people in India. 9 million of them, 9 million people. 9 million people, 0.0% believe in the gospel. Many never having even heard the gospel. Oh God, we pray, in light of this truth, in light of the authority, Jesus, you have over everything in heaven and on earth. We look to you as Lord and we pray that you would give us boldness, give us compassion to proclaim you as Lord today, to share with somebody else today that you are Lord Jesus, that you have come to save us from our sins and you reign as Lord over all, including every one of our lives.
God, please may it not be said that the people we worked with, and we lived around, and we were friends with, and we interacted with in our communities, in our cities, that they were not ready on that day when they will bow before you as Lord. God, may they be warned through us. May they be encouraged through us to trust in your Lordship. Now, God help us to speak this gospel today. And we pray that this gospel of your Lordship would be proclaimed among the Mappila people in India. God, among all 9 million of them. God, please bring them to know you as Lord. Jesus, you’re Lord over the Mappila. As Matthew 28:18 shows us, You deserve their praise. You deserve their worship. You’ve died for their sins.
Please bring Mappila people into your kingdom under your Lordship.
God, send the workers there. Raise up your church in India around this people group, in our churches, wherever country we’re in, God use us to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus to people who’ve never heard that Jesus is Lord. Please, Oh God, please, cause this good news of your Lordship over all to spread through us. Help us. Help us to make disciples of the nations, starting right where we live and continuing until all have heard that you are Lord. Please may it be so, and in through our lives and our churches, we ask in the name of Jesus the Lord. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
