Thursday, May 7, 2009

Today's Passage: Matthew 28

What a great chapter! This chapter is filled with great things for us. (I think I say that every week.) This chapter has three great things that I want us to look at: the great miracle of Christ's return, the Jewish leaders’ reaction to Christ’s resurrection, and the Great Commission.

Throughout the gospels Jesus has been speaking of His death. To this point all that He spoke of had come true. His greatest miracle, though, was raising himself from the dead. Just a few days before, He was crucified and today He is alive and walking. The women at the tomb reacted just as I think we would have; they fell down and worshipped Him. What an amazing story. For anyone that has ever said the Bible is not exciting, read this account and visualize it happening. Angels shocking men to near death, Christ returning from the dead, and Christ appearing to the women on their way to spread the news to the disciples--how much more excitement do you need?

The account of the Jewish leaders may be my favorite part of this chapter. Can you imagine being one of those leaders and listening to these guards tell you what happened? My first thought when I read this was, I would have to see this for myself. The Jewish leaders do not say this though, they know it is true. It was at this point that they knew they were wrong, that is, if they did not already know. Instead of jumping on the bandwagon and admitting their wrongdoings, they launch one of the greatest cover-ups the world has ever seen. The last thing they want is anyone getting wind of Jesus and this great miracle. Never in their conversation do you see any doubt that this actually happened, you only see that they were concerned about saving their reputation. I think this part of the account speaks to the power of the gospel story. If someone hears the whole story, much like these leaders did, it is hard to deny the truth.

The book of Matthew ends with one of the most widely known passages. Here at Bear Creek is was our mantra for 2008. Our challenge is to go and tell the story. However, I think we often read this passage and think that all we are supposed to do is make converts. This is far short of what we are being called to do here. We are to go and make disciples! This is not just saying a prayer and being done, this is helping to grow a fully devoted follower of Christ. We have a big challenge before us to help make these fully devoted followers, and the only effective way to reproduce fully devoted followers, is to ourselves be fully devoted followers. The last thing that Christ tells us in this book is to go and make disciples. Of all the things He could have said, this was the one thing that He wanted to leave us with; I think that should speak to the importance of this passage. My challenge for you and for me today is to examine our life and see what we are currently doing to make disciples, and see what we can do to make that more a priority.