Partakers Bible Thought - Jesus Final Command

Bible Thought - Matthew 28:18-20

Jesus is alive! My master Jesus is alive. I am much older now as I recall for you about this Jesus. I remember the day that He called me to follow him. I had heard about him of course. The religious leaders were talking about him, as were the general population. People coming to my tax booth to pay their taxes and telling me about this man, Jesus. Telling me how he was doing all sorts of wonders, miracles and healings. Then one day Jesus came to me! Me! Levi, the son of Alpheus. I was sitting in my booth collecting taxes and he called me personally to follow him. People despised me as a tax collector, looked down upon me, as they considered me as a collaborator with the occupying Roman force. Some of my fellow tax collectors even fleeced our unsuspecting “customers”. We had the authority to do so. Why not?

Then Jesus called me. Called me to follow Him, with an authority that was far greater than my own or any other authority I had experienced. Greater that the authority of the Roman Occupying Forces! Jesus saw potential in me and called me authoritatively to give up everything and follow him.

So, I got up and started following him. I stopped collecting taxes for the Romans and started my new life. And what is a new life without a party to celebrate! I held a great banquet at my house for Jesus, which of course, got right up the noses of the Pharisees. Jesus also changed my name from Levi to Matthew.

It is almost 3 years since that time. I and his other close disciples, have learnt from this Jesus. He encouraged, comforted, rebuked, challenged, guided and taught us. He loved us. We loved Him. We had placed our hope in Him as the long waited for Messiah who would kick out the Romans and lead Israel into a glorious future. The Messiah was ‘the expected one’, who would come and lead Israel out of their state of subjection to Rome and into the full enjoyment of their own land. How wrong we were though. We had placed our hope in Jesus Messiah. There was his joyful entry into that great city of Jerusalem – riding on a donkey and we celebrated Him as a triumphant King!

Then it all seemed to go wrong. After that joyful entry into Jerusalem, Jesus, our Master, was found guilty at a mockery of a trial and was crucified. He is dead. Even though he had told us that he would rise again from the dead, we didn’t believe it. But it is true! Now He is alive again! He really is alive again, you know! The religious authorities even tried to say that we had stolen the body from the tomb. How ridiculous.

These religious authorities bribed the Roman guards to say, “His disciples came in the night and stole the body while we were sleeping.” Of course, that is ridiculous – beyond ridiculous. They hadn’t really thought it through, had they? I mean can you spot the immediate logical inconsistency. If the guards were awake, why would they let us steal the body of Jesus? If the guards were asleep, how did they know for sure that it was us that stole the body?

We were cowering in fear that we would be next to die such a death. Some women were brave though and had gone to see his body for themselves. Some of us afterwards had gone back to the life we had before we met Jesus. Then we received some final words of command from Jesus before He ascended back to the Father. We were to keep following Him, make disciples of others, baptize them and teach them all that Jesus had taught us! WOW!

What an amazing opportunity given to us by God! Not to make mere converts, but lifelong disciples and followers. What a privilege and an honour. This collection of my memories about Jesus is complete now. I, Matthew, present Jesus to you, as the long waited for Messiah, predicted over the centuries gone by. I have also recorded here Israel’s attitude towards this Jesus as the Messiah. I, Matthew, started out giving you Jesus’ genealogy and proceeded to tell you about Jesus authority and authentication as the Messiah. I related to you about Israel's opposition to and rejection to Jesus being the Messiah. This caused Jesus to reject Israel due to her unbelief.

Now finally, I have recorded the death and resurrection of the Christ, with Jesus’ final command for us to go do as he did - make disciples where ever we go and whatever we are doing, baptizing them, teaching them and seeing that they also go and do the same. I love my Jesus and I know he loves me. Do you love Him? I can tell you, with undoubted assuredness and certainty that He loves you.

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