“therefore go and make disciples of all nations” ...Matthew 28:19

At the meeting place in Galilee the disciples first response was worship. They have had enough encounters with Jesus after the resurrection to lose their fear and begin to believe he really is the Messiah. But Matthew records that some among the 11 still doubted. I wonder who the hold outs were? 

Nevertheless, to this small group of 11 people (with some doubters among them) Jesus gave the commission to "go and make disciples of all nations..."  Imagine the the enormity of this assignment. We know there were other believers who would be available to help the disciples, but essentially it is a few hundred people at most. By any measure they have been very successful because today there are approximately 2.4 billion people in the world who claim to be Jesus followers. 

Thinking about this has led me to wonder who these 11 original disciples really were? We know they were Jewish men recruited by Jesus as he ministered from place to place in the early days of his ministry. We know they came from a variety of backgrounds and work experiences. We don't know precisely how old they were but it easy to assume they were teenagers or in their early twenties at the oldest. Certainly none of them would have been older than Jesus who as their leader would be the oldest. John lived the longest and if we assume he was in his 90's when he died it would mean he was about 20 at the time of the resurrection. James and John display youthfulness and a lack of maturity when they ask Jesus for a preferred spot in his Kingdom.

It looks like Jesus is going to leave the destiny of the entire human race to a group of young people. If the story ended there the whole enterprise would likely have failed. But the story did not end with this group of young people because Jesus said: "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” 

The Holy Spirit, who is the presence of God the Father and Jesus the Son, went with these young people. Jesus could say that he would be with them because he would be present in the person of the Holy Spirit. These 11 went in obedience. They suffered for the cause but successfully passed the message of eternal life to others. The making of disciples has continued to this day and Jesus continues to go with his disciples who engage in fulfilling the great commission.  

K R Paton

President