A lot of emphasis is put on the prime directive of Jesus’ last words as recorded at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, and rightly so. Jesus command to the disciples was to make more disciples. This command sums up all the others in that it covers the responsibility to preach the Gospel, heal the sick and show love one for another.

But in our concentration on the imperative we can fail to see the positive promises that go with it.

Firstly, we are told that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus, and it is with this authority that he commands us to make disciples. We don’t need permission from anyone to make disciples: the Lord of heaven and earth has not only given us the OK, but has commanded us to do it with his authority. This should give us confidence to go forward in his name and not just preach, but teach and live out the Christian life and pass it on to others.

Secondly, Jesus has promised his presence with us ‘always’ until this present age has passed away. In this respect Jesus hasn’t sent us, but rather he is still leading us in our disciplemaking as you would expect the Great Shepherd to do. This should give us a real comfort that we are not only at the centre of his will, but in his very presence whilst we fulfil his great commission to make disciples.

There can be no greater privilege than to walk with the Good Shepherd as we learn to shepherd his flock until the end of the age!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 12th, 2003 at 12:00 am and is filed under Devotional. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.