Zambia Hunt

Your Place in the Great Commission — Matthew 28:16–20

This is first in a three-part series on the Great Commission.

We can divide the world’s population of 8 billion people into four broad categories when it comes to the work of the gospel. Ten percent of the world’s population equals 800 million people.

• 10% — Saved and Reached. These people have a clear understanding of the gospel and have placed saving faith in Jesus Christ as the only hope of eternal life.
• 20% — Unsaved but Reached. Some people profess to be culturally Christian; they have been exposed to the gospel and the Scriptures and know of Christ’s death and resurrection, but they have not placed saving faith in Christ.
• 30% — Partially Reached. These people have some exposure to the gospel. They may have never been churched, but they could find a Bible or a church if they wanted to.
• 40% — Unreached. No Bible. No church. No gospel witness whatsoever.

Four out of ten people on earth have never meaningfully heard the name of Jesus Christ. That is the world Jesus is sending His church into. And He has something to say about it.

Background and Context

Matthew wrote his Gospel primarily to a Jewish audience, with one controlling purpose: to prove that Jesus of Nazareth is the long-awaited Messiah King. From the very first verse, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham” (1:1), Matthew is making a royal claim.

And remarkably, even in that opening genealogy, Matthew signals that this King did not come only for Israel. He breaks from convention to name women in the line — Tamar, Rahab the Gentile harlot from Jericho, and Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. The King came for sinners. He came for outsiders. He came for all nations. Matthew’s entire Gospel has been building to this moment.

By the time we reach Matthew 28, three and a half years of ministry have been compressed into twenty-seven chapters. Jesus has called disciples, declared the manifesto of His Kingdom in the Sermon on the Mount, healed the sick, confronted the religious establishment, and walked His followers toward the cross. Now:

• The Redemption has been accomplished — the blood sacrifice to take away the sins of the world is complete.
• The Resurrection is complete — the prophecies of Isaiah and of Jesus Himself have proven visibly, personally, and undeniably true.
• His Return to the Father is imminent.

The disciples have gathered for His final word to them. They do not yet fully understand that He is departing to return to His Father, or that the promised Holy Spirit will come to permanently indwell God’s people and empower them for life and ministry. What they know is this: Jesus is about to leave, and He has something to say. What message would He leave them with?

To understand what He says, we first need to understand where it stands in the sweep of redemptive history. Consider the shape of the New Testament itself:

• The Gospels introduce the facts about Christ.
• Acts proclaims the facts about Christ.
• The Epistles explain the facts about Christ.
• Revelation consummates the facts about Christ.

Between the end of Matthew and the book of Revelation, all of Scripture is dealing with one reality: the world does not know that Jesus is reigning — and what His people must do about it. Acts and the Epistles exist precisely to address that gap. The Great Commission is the hinge on which all of it turns.

Now What?

The time for Jesus’ departure has arrived. The disciples have gathered on a mountain in Galilee, as He had directed them. And here is where Matthew records something remarkable before a single word of the commission is spoken.

Matthew 28:16–17 — Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted.

Worship and doubt, in the same moment, on the same mountain. These are not two different groups of men — this is the condition of the human heart before the weight of an impossible task. They loved Christ enough to worship Him, and they knew themselves well enough to doubt whether they were up to what He was about to ask.

If you have ever looked at the Great Commission and thought, I am not sure I have what it takes — you are in precisely the right company. Because Jesus did not wait for perfect faith before He commissioned them. He did not say, “Come back when the doubt is gone.” He came to them, in their doubt, and He spoke. And the first word out of His mouth answers every fear:

Matthew 28:18–20 — “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

From this text, we will discover what God intends for each of us — actively, personally, sacrificially — in the global mission of gospel proclamation. Jesus calls for a reevaluation of priorities, urging His people to dedicate themselves to the discipleship and evangelization of all nations, with the promise of overwhelming resources to carry the mission to completion.

I. The Preeminence of the King (vv. 18–19a)

His Authority Is Established (v. 18)

Jesus does not open the Great Commission with a command. He opens it with a declaration. Before He tells them what to do, He tells them who He is — and what has happened.

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

This authority did not originate at the resurrection. The Old Testament had been pointing to this moment for centuries. Psalm 2 declared that the Father would give the nations as the Son’s inheritance — and Acts 13 confirms that this passage finds its fulfillment in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Psalm 110 announced that the Son of David would rule in the midst of His enemies, that He would be seated at the right hand of God until every foe was made His footstool. Isaiah 52:7 celebrated the messenger who would carry the news across the mountains: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” — a verse Paul explicitly connects to gospel proclamation in Romans 10:15.

The resurrection is not the beginning of the King’s story. It is the moment the King takes His throne. When Jesus says “all authority has been given to me,” He is announcing the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament’s royal hope. This is the Greek word exousia — not merely positional authority, but active ruling power. He is not a king in waiting. He is a king in reign.

The cross was the means to this end. God raised Jesus from the dead to reign as King — Acts 2:33 makes this explicit. The proclamation of Acts 2:36 follows directly: “God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Submit to Him!

Jesus rules and reigns over the affairs of heaven and earth. Every angelic being labors under His rule — willingly or unwillingly. The sun shines at His command, the galaxies spin in orbit at His command, the seasons, the rain, and all of creation obey Him. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

In light of these twin truths — He is in charge, and He is in control — Jesus issues the command. The word “therefore” in verse 19 is the hinge of the entire passage. The mission of the church does not rest on our ability, our resources, or our strategy. It rests entirely on His authority. “Go therefore” — because He reigns.

Worship and doubt are often found together in a disciple’s heart. You love Christ and you worship Him, but you look at yourself and doubt that you are adequate for the task He has set before you. Take note: God rarely gives us tasks equal to our strength. He delights in giving us strength equal to the task. In the midst of their doubt, Jesus came to them with assurance.

His Command Is All-Encompassing (v. 19a)

All nations are to be reached. There is no ethnos that is beyond the commission and command of the Lord Jesus. No geography exempts a people from His claim. No political hostility overrules His authority. No cultural barrier is beyond the reach of His gospel.

Consider the Muslim world of North Africa alone: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia. Morocco is 99% Muslim, with essentially no evangelical witness — meaning only one in a thousand people has ever met a Christian. Travel east from Morocco through Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt into the Middle East; change direction in Egypt and travel south along the eastern coast of the African continent through Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia. You will pass through 26 nations, 860 million people, and some of the fastest-growing populations on earth. This region contains some of the least-reached, least-accessible, most governmentally hostile people on earth — an overwhelming bloc of resistance to the gospel. Yet in the providence of God, there are places within it where opportunities for gospel work exist.

Nigeria: 213 million people, 50% Muslim, approximately 30% evangelical. Ranked sixth on the world persecution index. Many within the visible church are not regenerate — there is a cultural Christian identity, but it is not grounded in saving faith or a genuine understanding of the gospel.

Somalia: second on the world persecution index. Sudan: tenth, with 91% Muslim and roughly 2.5% evangelical.

And yet: there is no ethnos outside the limits of this all-encompassing command. There is no greater authority in heaven or earth that can limit or reduce the weight and breadth of what the King has said:

• There is nowhere we cannot go.
• There is no one we cannot tell.
• There are no acceptable excuses for non-compliance.

Go, therefore! In light of His authority over everything, He commands you to go — with a specific task to perform on His behalf.

Next: Part 2 — “Make Disciples,” the one command beneath the commission, and what it costs to obey it.