<p>28:19&nbsp;<i>Therefore go-&nbsp;</i>&nbsp;This evidently connects with the Lord&rsquo;s command in the parable: &ldquo;<i>Go ye</i>&rdquo; into the highways and &ldquo;gather together&nbsp;<i>all</i>&rdquo;, as many as were found. And this in turn is an extension of an earlier parable, where the net of the Gospel is presented as&nbsp;<i>gathering</i>&nbsp;&ldquo;every kind&rdquo;- every&nbsp;<i>genos</i>, every &ldquo;kindred / nation / stock / generation&rdquo;, as the word is elsewhere translated (Mt. 28:19; 22:9,10; 13:47). The work of the Gospel described in those earlier parables was now specifically delegated to the Lord&rsquo;s men. Through the work of the Lord&rsquo;s followers over the generations, there would in every nation and generation be some who were gathered in, of as many social classes as one finds walking along a street highway / byway. The net of Gospel preaching is filled (<i>pleroo</i>), and then pulled to shore for judgment. When the Gospel has been preached in all the world (with response), then the end will come. Elsewhere Paul uses the same word to describe how the Gospel is fulfilled by preaching it (Rom. 15:19; Col. 1:25). To have the Gospel is to have an imperative to preach it.</p><p>The victorious truth that &ldquo;All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth&rdquo; is purposefully juxtaposed against the next clause, which seems to contradict it: &ldquo;Go ye therefore, and teach all nations...&rdquo; (Mt. 28:18,19). Through teaching and baptising all nations, the extent of that universal power is made known. But it depends on the freewill obedience of the believers to this commission. The Lord had the Spirit without measure, and yet He &ldquo;could not&rdquo; do many miracles in Nazareth because of their unbelief.&nbsp;</p><p><i>And make disciples-&nbsp;</i>The aim of our fulfilling the great commission is above all to &quot;make disciples&quot;, to get more followers behind Jesus, more learners of Him, a greater bride for Him. Grammatically in Mt. 28:19-20,<i> mathateusate&nbsp;</i>(&quot;make disciples&quot;) is the main verb, and&nbsp;<i>poreuthentes&nbsp;</i>(&quot;while going&quot;),&nbsp;<i>baptizontes&nbsp;</i>(&quot;baptizing&quot;), and&nbsp;<i>didaskontes&nbsp;</i>(&quot;teaching&quot;) are subsidiary participles. In other words, the focus of our work must be upon making disciples for Christ, on thereby bringing about His glory. All the baptizing and teaching which we do is subsidiary to this aim, and they can therefore never be ends in themselves.</p><p>Matthew&rsquo;s record of the great commission draws on earlier themes and passages in his Gospel. The Lord told His men to go out and make disciples of men (Mt. 28:19 RV). In the immediate context, there are many references to the disciples (Mt. 27:64; 28:7,8,13,16). And the term &ldquo;disciples&rdquo; occurs more often (73 times) in Matthew than in any of the other Gospels (e.g. only 37 times in Luke). The Lord is telling His men: &lsquo;Go out and make men like you- disciples, stumbling &lsquo;learners&rsquo;, not experts&rsquo;. Thus they were to witness from their own experience, to share this with others, to bring others to share the type of relationship which they had with the Lord. In this sense preaching is seen by Paul as a bringing forth of children in our own image. John likewise was &ldquo;the beloved disciple&rdquo;, the&nbsp;<i>agapetos</i>. And yet this is the very term which he uses in his letters to describes his &ldquo;beloved children&rdquo; (1 Jn. 2:1; 4:11). He saw them as sharing the same relationship to his Lord as he had. The nature of our relationship with the Lord will be reflected in that of our converts. He tells His men to go to the lost sheep, and yet in that same context He calls them sheep, in the midst of wolves (Mt. 10:6,16). They were sheep sent to rescue sheep- to plead with men and women as men and women, to witness to humanity through their own humanity. Likewise the Lord spoke of how the extraordinary unity of His men would&nbsp;convince others that &ldquo;thou didst send me&rdquo; (Jn. 17:23), having just commented how they had surely believed &ldquo;that thou didst send me&rdquo; (:8).&nbsp;</p><p>The command to &lsquo;make disciples&rsquo; of all men in Matthew is framed in such a way as to make &lsquo;...baptising them...&rsquo; a subordinate clause. Baptism is only part of the work of making disciples. In Mt. 28:19-20<i>mathateusate&nbsp;</i>(&quot;make disciples&quot;) is the main verb, while&nbsp;<i>poreuthentes&nbsp;</i>(&quot;while going&quot; or &quot;when you go&quot;),&nbsp;<i>baptizontes&nbsp;</i>(&quot;baptizing&quot;), and&nbsp;<i>didaskontes&nbsp;</i>(&quot;teaching&quot;) are subsidiary participles. The focus clearly is upon making disciples- all the other things, the teaching, baptizing, our effort in travelling and preaching, are incidental to this main aim. This is why responsibility to those we may convert only begins at baptism; it&rsquo;s a beginning of a man or woman being fashioned into the image of Christ, not the end. This is why Paul often uses the language of preaching about his pastoral efforts with his brethren e.g. his desire to &lsquo;preach the Gospel&rsquo; to the believers at Rome to whom he was writing. He sees himself as preaching Christ to them still, in so doing warning them, &ldquo;that we may present every man perfect&rdquo; (Col. 1:28). Thus Paul parallels being a minister of the world-wide preaching of the Gospel, and being a minister of the church (Col. 1:23, 25). He saw his continued work amongst his baptized readership as&nbsp;<i>fully preaching</i>&nbsp;the word of God (Col. 1:25 AVmg.). So Paul said&nbsp;in Gal. 4:19 &ldquo;I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you&rdquo;. How do we see our responsibility to those to whom we have preached the gospel? We should continue to nurture and feed them well after the time of their baptism.&nbsp; It seems that this is not a general responsibility which falls on the shoulders of all of us.&nbsp; Rather we have a personal responsibility to those we have begotten through the gospel (1Cor. 4:15).</p><p><i>Of all the nations</i>- A reference to Gen. 18:18. The Lord twice told the disciples: &quot;Go ye... go ye&quot; (Mk. 16:15 cp. Mt. 28:19 and contexts). He was encouraging them to do the natural corollary of what they had experienced. The Lord commissioned us to go into all the world and make disciples of all; but He describes this in other terms as being witnesses of Him to the world (Mt. 28:19; Acts 1:8). Our witness must fundamentally, therefore, be Christ-centred.</p><p>If we say that we are&nbsp;<i>not</i>&nbsp;commanded to obey the command to go into all nations, then we must also conclude that we are not commanded to baptize people. And if these words about baptism don't apply to us today, then there is no command of the Lord Jesus to be baptized. The connection between the command to preach and the command to baptize is made clearer by the parallel record: &quot;Go ye therefore, and teach (make disciples of, AVmg.) all nations, baptising them... and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world&quot; (Mt. 28:19,20), i.e. Christ will be with us in our preaching right to the ends of the world. The special closeness of the Lord in preaching work has been widely commented upon by preachers. The commission of Mt. 28:19,20 is alluded to in Acts 14:21 AVmg. concerning the work of Paul and Barnabas, neither of whom were among the twelve: &quot;And when they had preached the Gospel to that city, and had made many disciples...&rdquo;. This in itself disproves the idea that the great commission was intended only for the twelve.</p><p><i>Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit</i>- To love God and Christ is to love our neighbour as ourselves. This is because of the intense unity of God's Name. Because our brethren and sisters share God's Name, as we do, we must love them as ourselves, who also bear that same Name. And if we love the Father, we must love the Son, who bears His Name, with a similar love. The letters of John state this explicitly. If we love God, we<i> must</i>&nbsp;love our brother; and if we love the Father, we&nbsp;<i>must</i>&nbsp;love the Son. This is why we must honour the Son as we honour the Father (Jn. 5:23); such is the unifying power of God's Name. So the Father, Son and church are inextricably connected. Baptism into the name of Christ is therefore baptism into the Name of the Father, and associates us with the &quot;one Spirit&quot; (Mt. 28:19; Eph. 4:4). In the same way as we cannot choose to live in isolation from the Father and Son, so we cannot separate ourselves from others who bear the same Name. The Scribe well understood all this: &quot;There is one God... and to love him... and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices&quot; (Mk. 12:32,33). Those whole offerings represented the whole body of Israel (Lev. 4:7-15). The Scribe understood that those offerings taught that all Israel were unified together on account of their bearing the same Name of Yahweh.</p>