That Mountain!

Yesterday I wrote a post about some of the things I'm learning from Matthew 28. I'm going to pick it up where I left off so read this to catch up if you want...



So here's my thing with the Great Commission...the scope of what Jesus intends for us to accomplish is unbelievable!



"All nations...All commands..."



Both of those directives seem pretty overwhelming!



To add to it, the "all commands" part took on new meaning when I stumbled across this little detail in verse 16 that I hadn't ever noticed before.



16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.



I thought, "I know Galilee, that's Jesus' hometown...but what's this mountain?"



And then it hits me! Jesus preached a famous sermon at the outset of His ministry that we have nicknamed the Sermon on the Mount...



Sure enough, Matthew 4:23 puts Jesus in Galilee and Matthew 5:1 puts him on the mountain to preach his famous sermon.



In other words, Jesus tells His disciples to go back to the exact spot where it all started and then Commissions them to go and make disciples of ALL nations...teaching them ALL commands, on top of the same mountain that He was standing on when He preached the Sermon on the Mount!!!



The disciples were so blown away the first time they heard Jesus preach this message that Matthew wrote this about their reaction, "28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law."

Imagine what they must have been thinking after seeing all they had seen over the three years of Jesus' ministry.

"I mean, Jesus was dead 24 hours ago, and now we're back where it started except it's our turn!!!"



That's probably enough for now...to be continued!