BEMA Episode Link: 132: Go
Episode Length: 30:06
Published Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 01:00:00 -0700
Session 3
About this episode:

Marty Solomon and Brent Billings bring the discussion of the Gospels to a close with a brief look at the resurrection and the great commission.

Discussion Video for BEMA 132

Living Hope sermon — YouTube

The Final Week #7: Just One Hope sermon — YouTube

Transcript for BEMA 132

Notes

*Note: The following notes are handwritten by me, Adam, and I reserve the right to be wrong.

BEMA Episode 132: Go - Study Notes

Title & Source Summary

Episode: 132 - Go
Hosts: Marty Solomon and Brent Billings Focus: Matthew 28 - The Resurrection and the Great Commission

This episode brings Session 3 (the Gospels) to a close with an examination of Matthew 28, focusing on the resurrection of Jesus and the Great Commission. Marty and Brent explore the theological significance of the resurrection as God’s ultimate affirmation that the order of life defeats the order of death. The discussion emphasizes the preeminence of resurrection theology, the rabbinical brilliance of Jesus’s final instructions to his disciples, and the practical call to make disciples in the tradition of first-century rabbinical discipleship.

Key Takeaways

  • The resurrection is God’s definitive answer that the order of life triumphs over the order of death, vindicating hope and trust in the story.
  • Resurrection theology should be understood as central to Christology, possibly even more foundational than the crucifixion or incarnation alone.
  • The Great Commission likely took place in Galilee (possibly Mount Hermon) rather than Jerusalem, requiring the disciples to walk past every moment of Jesus’s ministry post-resurrection.
  • Jesus commissioned doubters alongside believers, demonstrating that doubt is acceptable for disciple-makers.
  • The call to “make disciples” is specifically a rabbinical calling to invest deeply in select individuals who will become like their rabbi, not merely a call to evangelize or mentor everyone.
  • Jesus retains all authority, meaning disciples operate under his ongoing living authority rather than inheriting it themselves.
  • The promise “I am with you always” provides assurance for disciples facing fear, mistakes, and overwhelming circumstances.

Main Concepts & Theories

The Preeminence of Resurrection

Marty presents three major theological frameworks for understanding Jesus’s work, each emphasizing a different aspect of Christology:

  1. Substitutionary Atonement (Crucifixion-Centered): Much of evangelical Christianity emphasizes penal substitutionary atonement, which naturally elevates the crucifixion as the most significant event. Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” exemplified this with its opening line: “Dying was His reason for living.”

  2. Solidarity Christology (Incarnation-Centered): Thinkers like Tony Jones emphasize the incarnation as God joining humanity in solidarity, entering into the struggle with us.

  3. Crucifixion as Revelation (Greg Boyd): Some theologians argue the cross reveals God’s plan and nature perfectly, making it the lens through which all theology should be viewed.

  4. Resurrection-Centered (Marty’s Position): Marty argues for the preeminence of resurrection because it answers the fundamental question that runs throughout the entire biblical narrative: which kingdom wins - Empire or Shalom, the order of death or the order of life?

The resurrection is not simply a miraculous proof of Jesus’s divinity but rather God’s cosmic declaration that death is not as final as it appears, that hope is justified, and that the order of life truly gets the last word.

Tale of Two Kingdoms: Empire vs. Shalom

The entire biblical narrative from Exodus to Revelation is framed as a conflict between two competing orders:

The Order of Death (Empire): Cancer, greed, adultery, selfishness, disease, disasters, corruption, fear, and ultimately death itself.

The Order of Life (Shalom): Love, mercy, forgiveness, hope, joy, healing, redemption, and second chances.

Throughout Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible), the question persists: which order is more real? Moses set before the people life and death. Joshua invited Israel to choose which gods they would serve. Ezekiel was shown a valley of dry bones and asked, “Can these bones live?” The resurrection finally answers this question definitively - death is not as real as we thought.

Paul affirms this centrality in 1 Corinthians 15:12-14: “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” Without the resurrection, faith itself is meaningless.

The Geography of the Great Commission

Marty challenges the common assumption that the Great Commission was given immediately before the Ascension. The text reveals important geographical distinctions:

  • The Ascension occurred on the Mount of Olives, just outside Jerusalem (clearly stated in Acts and the Gospels except Mark).
  • The Great Commission was given at “the mountain” in Galilee (Matthew 28:16).

Jesus instructed the women (and later appeared to confirm): “Go to Galilee, there they will see me.” This required a week-long journey north from Jerusalem.

Marty suggests this mountain was likely Mount Hermon (not the traditional Mount Tabor) for several reasons:

  1. Connection to Transfiguration: The phrase “there you will see him” echoes the transfiguration, where Jesus was “seen in glory.” Mount Hermon is the likely location of the transfiguration.

  2. Rabbinical Brilliance: This created an incredible teaching opportunity. The disciples had to:
    • Walk from Jerusalem to the northernmost point of Jesus’s ministry
    • Pass by virtually every location where Jesus taught and ministered
    • Process all of Jesus’s teachings post-resurrection
    • Then walk all the way back to Jerusalem for the Ascension
  3. Thematic Connection to Caesarea Philippi: Mount Hermon overlooks Caesarea Philippi, where Jesus declared he would “build his church” and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. It makes perfect sense that Jesus would give the Great Commission to go to “all nations” at the same location where he taught about the Kingdom coming to all people.
The Three Components of the Great Commission

Jesus gives three specific instructions, which Marty unpacks in reverse order:

1. Teach Them: Disciples are to open others’ eyes to God’s story happening all around them. This isn’t about bringing people to a holy place to see God, but helping them see God everywhere. To fulfill this, disciples must “get the Text in us” - we cannot teach Jesus’s words if we don’t know them.

2. Baptize Them: Baptism is an act of repentance (t’shuvah), inviting people to return home to where God created them to be. It marks entrance into a better Kingdom with a new King. This new Christian baptism is distinct from John’s baptism of repentance (tavilat t’shuvah mikvah) - it’s connected to the Holy Spirit and the Kingdom Jesus ushered in. For Gentiles, while they lacked the Jewish mikvah tradition, they would have been familiar with ritual cleansing from various pagan religious practices (like those before entering the Asclepius or in Demeter worship).

3. Make Disciples: This is where Marty expresses his most controversial position. He argues that “make disciples” is not:

  • A call to make converts (though evangelism is valuable)
  • An invitation to spiritual mentorship for everyone
  • A universal call to spiritual growth and maturity (though these are important)

Instead, it is a call to rabbinical, come-follow-me discipleship - finding people willing and able to spend their whole selves becoming just like their rabbi. In first-century Judaism, disciples were rare (Jesus had twelve, perhaps only 100 total disciples existed). This was less than 1% of the population. The other 99% of faithful Jews weren’t disciples, and they didn’t feel inferior for it.

Marty believes discipleship is “for someone, but not for everyone.” This conviction led him into campus ministry, where he could find people with freedom and autonomy who could truly “come follow me” - living life together daily, eating meals together, spending extended time in intensive formation.

Doubt and Discipleship

Matthew 28:17 contains a remarkable detail: “When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted.”

Before giving the Great Commission, we’re told some disciples doubted. Jesus doesn’t separate the believers from the doubters. He doesn’t put doubters in one pile and believers in another. He commissions them all together.

This reveals a crucial truth: doubt is acceptable for commissioned disciple-makers of Jesus. Wrestling with faith is not disqualifying. The text doesn’t require resolution of all doubts before participation in kingdom work.

Living Authority

Unlike typical rabbis who would pass on their authority to disciples so the teaching line could continue, the resurrected Jesus keeps all authority for himself: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

Disciples operate under Jesus’s ongoing, living authority. When mistakes happen, when fear overwhelms, when the going gets tough, the promise remains: “I am with you always, to the very end of the age (olam).”

Examples & Applications

Resurrection Hope in Suffering

The order of death appears dominant in our world - cancer takes family members, the greedy hold power, disasters cannot be prevented, and death seems utterly final. Yet the empty tomb declares that death is not as real as it appears. This transforms how believers face suffering: not with denial, but with confidence that the order of life gets the last word.

Processing Jesus’s Teachings Post-Resurrection

The journey from Jerusalem to Galilee and back created space for the disciples to reprocess everything Jesus taught them in light of the resurrection. This models how understanding deepens with new revelation. Believers today can similarly revisit familiar teachings with new eyes as understanding grows.

Campus Ministry and Intensive Discipleship

Marty’s decision to pursue campus ministry illustrates the practical application of rabbinical discipleship. College students represent a unique demographic: adults with relative freedom, not yet bound by mortgages or marriage, possessing autonomy. This allows for the kind of intensive, all-of-life discipleship where someone can “get up when I get up, eat breakfast with me, lunch with me, dinner with me, hang out with my family, live life with me.”

Commissioning the Doubters

Modern church culture often sidelines those who express doubt or ask hard questions. The Great Commission challenges this by showing Jesus specifically commissioning doubters. This creates space for honest wrestling in faith communities and leadership.

Potential Areas for Further Exploration

  1. Comparative Atonement Theories: Deeper study of substitutionary atonement, Christus Victor, moral influence theory, and recapitulation theories. How does emphasizing resurrection shift understanding of these?

  2. Geography and Jesus’s Teaching: Detailed mapping of the journey from Jerusalem to Galilee, identifying specific teaching locations the disciples would have passed, and how those teachings might have been reinterpreted post-resurrection.

  3. First-Century Discipleship Practices: Investigation into rabbinical discipleship customs, selection criteria for disciples, daily rhythms, and how disciples were trained.

  4. Baptism Development: Trace the evolution from Jewish mikvah to John’s baptism to Christian baptism. What specific elements did Paul reference when distinguishing Christian baptism from “John’s baptism”? (See Acts 18-19 with Apollos)

  5. The Empty Tombs: Archaeological and historical investigation of proposed tomb locations, the evidence for and against various sites, and what the empty tomb meant in first-century Jewish resurrection theology.

  6. “All Nations” in Jewish Context: How would first-century Jewish disciples have understood Jesus’s command to make disciples of “all nations” (panta ta ethne)? How does this connect to Abrahamic covenant promises?

  7. Mount Hermon vs. Mount Tabor: Scholarly arguments for transfiguration locations and implications for understanding the Great Commission location.

  8. The “End of the Age”: What did “to the very end of the age” (olam) mean in Jewish apocalyptic thought? Is this the end of the current world order or something else?

  9. Authority in Rabbinic Succession: How did typical rabbinical authority transmission work, and what are the implications of Jesus retaining all authority rather than passing it on?

  10. Modern Discipleship Models: Comparative analysis of modern discipleship approaches (small groups, mentoring programs, spiritual direction) versus first-century rabbinical discipleship.

Comprehension Questions

  1. What are the three main events in Christology, and why does Marty argue that resurrection should be seen as preeminent over the other two?

  2. Explain the “Tale of Two Kingdoms” framework and how the resurrection serves as God’s definitive answer to the question posed throughout Scripture about which kingdom is most real.

  3. Why does Marty believe the Great Commission took place at Mount Hermon rather than immediately before the Ascension in Jerusalem? What rabbinical purpose would this serve?

  4. What is the significance of Matthew 28:17 stating that “some doubted” right before Jesus gave the Great Commission? What does this reveal about the relationship between doubt and discipleship?

  5. How does Marty distinguish between “making converts,” “spiritual mentorship,” and “rabbinical discipleship”? Why does he believe the Great Commission specifically calls for the latter, and why does he think it’s not for everyone?

Personal Summary

Episode 132 brings Session 3 to a powerful conclusion by reframing how we understand the resurrection and the Great Commission. Rather than viewing the resurrection as merely a supernatural proof or the crucifixion as the sole focus of salvation, Marty presents resurrection as God’s cosmic declaration that the order of life triumphs over the order of death - the central question running through the entire biblical narrative from Genesis forward.

The geographical details of the Great Commission reveal Jesus’s rabbinical genius: sending disciples on a week-long journey from Jerusalem to Galilee and back, forcing them to walk past every teaching location and reprocess his entire ministry through the lens of resurrection. The likely location at Mount Hermon connects thematically to Caesarea Philippi, where Jesus first declared he would build his church - now commissioning disciples at that same location to go to all nations.

Perhaps most challenging is Marty’s understanding of “make disciples” as a specific rabbinical calling rather than a universal mandate for all believers. Drawing from first-century Jewish practice where disciples represented less than 1% of the population, he argues for intensive, life-on-life discipleship with select individuals rather than broad mentorship programs. This perspective disrupts common interpretations but attempts to hear the command through first-century ears.

The inclusion of doubters in the commission offers profound comfort: Jesus doesn’t require perfect faith before entrusting kingdom work. The promise “I am with you always” assures disciples that they operate not in transferred authority but under Jesus’s ongoing, living presence and power. This transforms discipleship from anxious striving to confident participation in the work of a present, risen Lord who retains all authority in heaven and earth.

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