A great 2 1/2 year study of the Gospel of Matthew comes to a close...Matthew 28:16-20

 

It is not just I who goes hiking but Stephanie too.  While she was hiking across the alpine tundra with these beautiful ladies from the church, I was with another fellow from the church about 1500 ft below them in the valley.  I took my binoculars and actually caught a sight of them probably 2 miles as the crow flies.  I could pick out Stephanie's bright shirt.  She has another ladies' hike set for a week from Friday with another group.

Here was our baptism set up for baptism 2.0 on Sunday afternoon.

Always good to have some singing when we gather.

A young man named Ezra who is a seasonal worker who has called SCC his church home while in Grand Lake.  

A man named Jeff who came to SCC through the weekly men's Bible group.  His testimony back to God is tremendous.

We completed Matthew's gospel with looking at the Great Commission with fresh eyes.  It was ironic or providential that we baptized a couple disciples of Jesus that afternoon after speaking of it in the morning service.  These men are more than converts.  They are disciples who have been learning and observing within our midst and displaying the transformation that Jesus is making in their lives.  

I really like how Matthew sets up his readers and future church bodies with our main mission.  We will do much as a church body and thankful that we have a group that can pool resources to accomplish much for the glory of God but when it comes down to the number 1 goal, it has to be the Great Commission, the making of disciples.

The making of disciples involves us walking alongside one another.  Evangelism has happened and now we move into discipleship that starts with the obedience of baptism.  Following that obedience we add the formal teachings of Jesus and supplement it with the new disciples observing us obeying all that He has commanded us.  You can't do these things without being alongside one another.  The body is working together to make disciples.  So when I stand in the water and say, "I baptize you in the name of...", it really should be "We baptize you in the name of..."  The church body has a key role in the making of a disciple.

Matthew has been on a quest to help his Jewish brothers and sisters to see that Jesus truly is the Messiah; the One they have been waiting for; the Anointed One spoken of by so many of the prophets; the precious and chief Cornerstone that the builders rejected, and the Son of David (the everlasting King) and Abraham (the blessing to all nations).  Matthew, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has woven in as many passages of the Old Testament to help them connect the dots to Jesus as the Messiah.  He started his gospel with a baby born to a virgin to be named Emmanuel which means God with us and he ends it with the Great Commission and Jesus' words that He would be with His disciples always, even to the end of the age.

Another time Jesus uses this "with" terminology is at the end of the passage about church discipline in Matthew 18.  He lays out the proper steps to take for reconciliation and ends it with the line that He would be in the midst of that.  Here Jesus does it again at the end of the process of making disciples who publicly profess Him and learn and obey His teachings.  I look at this as a specific "with" as a promise from Jesus when we do things His prescribed way.  Tough things to do but know that He is right there with you and your brothers and sisters of your local church family.

Now unto 1 Peter to look at Peter's later life.  He has been making disciples and we will see him use many of the words of Jesus in this letter.  

Adam