Go As You Are Going: The Great Commission for Ordinary, Doubting People

Before Josh Gray preached a single verse this week, he asked a question that sounded almost too simple to be worth asking out loud: "Why are you here?"

He answered it himself first. In April of 1995, he was an 18-year-old kid with no real Christian upbringing, and some obedient followers of Christ decided to share the gospel with him anyway. He said yes to Jesus that year, and though he calls himself someone who has been flailing forward ever since, that one decision by a handful of ordinary people is the reason he was standing on a stage on the Palouse decades later.

Kalani Watkins, Real Life's youth pastor, gave a version of the same answer. Her parents made her go to VBS when she was six years old, and by her own account it wrecked her, in the good way. It planted a seed she did not fully understand until high school. Other people kept saying yes to Jesus and never stopped saying yes, and that seed eventually became her own faith. Now 24, she leads the next generation of students on the very same ground.

Two very different stories, one identical cause. Somebody obeyed the Great Commission, and it changed a life. That is exactly where Real Life landed on the final Sunday of its two-and-a-half-year journey through the book of Matthew, closing out chapter 28 the same way the whole gospel began: with an ordinary God's-with-us kind of King, and a mission that is not finished just because the book is.

The King Behind the Command

Jesus's last recorded words in Matthew are not a suggestion. "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:18-19). Notice where he starts. He does not open with "go." He opens with who he is.

Everything that follows depends on that authority. Jesus is not asking for volunteers on a project he hopes works out. He is King, over Moscow, over Pullman, over the United States, over Romania, over Uganda, over every nation you could name, and his power outranks Moses, David, Solomon, and every Caesar who ever ruled. Matthew opens the gospel presenting Jesus as King and closes it the exact same way, because he still is one.

If that is true, the Great Commission stops being optional. It is not a suggestion for the especially gifted. It is a command from the only one who actually holds the authority to give it, and the question is not whether it applies to you. The question is whether you will answer when he calls.

Kingdom Work Was Never About Your Resume

Once you accept that this is a command from a King, the next question is obvious. Am I qualified for this? According to this sermon, that question is beside the point, because kingdom work was never built on qualifications.

It is not based on talent. Moses had a stutter, and God used him anyway. Paul was not known for his speaking, and God still used him. It is not based on resources. A big house or a full bank account is a good thing, but the real question is whether it is being used to bless someone else. And it is not based on strength. Nobody can be everywhere at once or do everything at once, and nobody was built to. His power is made perfect in our weaknesses, not our capabilities.

Kingdom work is based on him. His love. His power. His grace. His mercies, which are new every morning. His authority. You get to go and tell someone about the man who saved you, not because you finally became qualified, but because he already has all the authority this requires.

Worshiping With Doubts Still Counts

Here is the detail in Matthew 28 that is easy to skip past. Verse 17 says the eleven disciples saw Jesus and worshiped him, and then, in the very next breath, "but some doubted." These are men who had just watched Jesus rise from the dead, and some of them still were not sure.

And Jesus commissioned them anyway.

That is not an isolated case. Thomas doubted. Peter denied him outright. Jesus welcomed Judas to the table knowing he would betray him. A Samaritan woman with a reputation nobody was proud of was the first person he told plainly that he was the Messiah. If Jesus had waited for perfect faith before entrusting anyone with his mission, the gospel would have stopped on that mountain in Galilee, and heaven might be a lot emptier than it is. He entrusts imperfect, doubting people, and he still does. That includes whoever is reading this with a doubt they have never said out loud.

Go As You Are Going

Verse 19 opens with "therefore go," and the "go" is not a finish line. It does not mean wait until you have the Bible memorized, wait until you join a small group, wait until you can answer every question someone might throw at you. It means go as you are going. Perfection is not the price of admission. It is what happens as you walk with Jesus along the way.

For Real Life, that command is not abstract history. This church exists because three families gave up secure jobs and drove here on faith with no building and no chairs, simply because they listened to "go." Since then, over a thousand people on the Palouse have come to know the Lord as a direct result of that obedience.

And that going starts closer to home than most people expect. It starts with parents, whose kids will understand who God is by watching them long before they understand a sermon. It continues at work and at school, wherever people are watching how you handle frustration, how you talk, how you treat people who annoy you, whether you are a doctor, a finance manager, or one of the University of Idaho athletes now living in Moscow. Nobody is called to go it alone, either. Get into a life group. Find a mentor, someone who has walked with the Lord longer than you have and has wisdom worth borrowing. And then turn around and disciple someone else the same way.

The Mission Doesn't End Because He Doesn't Leave

Matthew's gospel opens with Emmanuel, God with us, and it closes the same way: "I am with you always, to the very end of the age." The mission was never fueled by anyone's own ability. It is fueled by his presence. The disciples were not enough on their own, and neither are we, but we are with the Lord, and that has always been the actual qualification.

It will not be easy. It was not easy for the missionaries this church supports on the field right now, and it will not be easy for whoever obeys next. But it is worth it. Matthew ends without an ending on purpose, because Jesus intends for his church to keep writing the story. It began with "follow me," and it ends with "go, as you are going." The first disciples walked down that mountain carrying the gospel. This week, the people of Real Life walk out the same doors carrying the same one.

Join Us This Sunday

The mission that started with eleven doubting disciples on a mountain in Galilee is still moving on the Palouse, and there is a place for you in it. We gather every Sunday at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM at the Eastside Marketplace in Moscow. We have a place for your kids too through Lifer Kids, and each week we take communion together as a family, remembering exactly what Christ has done and why his presence in our lives matters.

Come as you are, doubts included. We would love to meet you.

Plan Your Visit today!