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16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ~ Matthew 28:16-17
Today, we return to our study of Matthew 28 which is the ultimate climax of the whole gospel. This is where the ministry of the Lord Jesus has always been pointing us. The ultimate and primary purpose of every born again believer in Jesus Christ is discovered in today's passage. It is the same primary purpose of the Lord Jesus and He desires it to be our primary purpose as well. If we get this right everything else will fall into its proper place.
In v.16 of today's passage we read, "Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go."
In order to frame up our ultimate purpose on this earth, we must first know how we arrived here. Just like each of the twelve disciples, we were called into a personal relationship with God through the message delivered to us through His Son. That message we know to be the "gospel" which literally means "good news." However, we will never truly appreciate the fact that it is good news until we are fully aware of the bad news. The bad news is that we were all conceived sinful, wretched and at odds with God.
The disciples went to Galilee because the Lord Jesus had told them to meet Him there. The obedience of the disciples lead them further into an intimate relationship with the Lord, as it always does. The greater their intimacy with the Lord yielded a greater capacity for them to worship Him. That which we worship the most defines us best. Since God is the greatest reality in our lives then worship of Him is the most important thing we will ever do. Sadly, most think worship is about themselves feeling something but it is about our preoccupation with God whether it gives us good feelings or not. True worship happens when we treasure God above all.
In Romans 5:12 we read, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."
We are all sinners not because we sin but because we were born sinners. This world was contaminated by sin when the serpent deceived Adam into eating from the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Sin is anything that is contrary to what God has defined it. Adam had no reason to not be defined by God but he listened to the cunning deceitfulness of the one who was cast out of heaven because he wanted to be his own god.
Every little brand new birthed baby is an undeveloped ball of iniquity. According to Ephesians 2:1-3 every person ever birthed was born dead in sin. In fact, according to Romans 5:10 we were the enemies of God because no one could escape the wide influence of sin. According to Romans 3:9-11 we all were contaminated some much by sin that God said there is no human who is righteous. This is the bad news that so beautifully frames up the good news.
Like the early disciples, once we learned of our rebellious sinfulness and then we heard to gospel, we turn to God for help by trusting in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Romans 5:10-11 we read, "10 Even when we were God's enemies, he made peace with us, because his Son died for us. Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by the life of his Son. 11 And, in addition to everything else, we are happy because God sent our Lord Jesus Christ to make peace with us." God did something that we could not do for ourselves, He substantiated the truth by sending His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ who laid down His life as a sacrifice for our sin. It was the Lord Jesus who earned a rich standing for us before God.
Having come to the Lord Jesus as their Savior the disciples followed Him. After He died, they hid out of fear that they would be treated like the Lord. The didn't understand that He was the Lamb of God who came to this earth to remedy our sin. And after the resurrection the Lord Jesus told His disciples to go to Galilee and wait for Him to show up there.
In v.17 of today's passage we read, "When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted."
When the disciples next saw the Lord Jesus in Galilee, they worshiped Him. This gets at our ultimate purpose which is to be defined by Him. Now, the fact is fellowship is an absolute essential for all of us but it is not our primary purpose. And yes, teaching is essential, and so is praise. But none of them, and not all of them in combination, are the primary purpose of our lives. None of these very worthy things are underscored as our primary purpose and why we are here on this earth.
Our primary purpose is the ultimate message in Matthew, because it is the climactic one. When man fell in sin in the garden, because of man’s fall, all of the human race was condemned to death and to hell. The whole human race died to God in the sin of Adam. But immediately, God set out to redeem man back to Himself, out of His gracious love.
According to the last verse of today's passage, "When the disciples saw the Lord Jesus they worshiped Him." They worshiped the Lord! They worshiped Him because He deserved their obedience and respect. He earned our obedience and respect through what He did on that cross. When we obey Him, we demonstrate our respect of Him. When we respect Him to the point of obedience we reveal He is worthy. Someone once defined worship as "worth-ship." True worship is a matter of the heart expressed through a lifestyle of obedience. We must be careful here because we will never be perfect in our obedience to God. The real issue is really an issue of the heart. Due to God's unimaginable generosity toward us through the death of His Son, we choose to respond to Him through our worship or our attempts to show Him worth through being defined by Him.
As the last verse of today's passage suggests, key to our ability to worship God is how we respond to our doubts and questions. Doubt is a key ingredient in the development of our faith in the Lord Jesus. If we understood everything, we would have no need for faith. But, since we don’t understand everything, we must give place for faith. Implicit to faith is doubt. Doubt does not have to be the enemy of faith, it can actually be something that strengthens our faith. Our doubts are normal because they are based on faith and belief in something. It is only as we wrestle with our questions that we can possibly become stronger in our faith. Like these disciples, may we be those who doubt our doubts, and as a result we will learn to help others to do the same!
