3. It is evident that, in the account here, the main facts are brought together so as to give the relative position of the parties, as to the Jews and disciples, in their Jewish connection, and the Jews' connection with the Romans, not stopping at the linking events according to time.
18. He is risen, not ascended. This commission seems to have been entirely curtailed and broken in upon by the events. According to God's counsel Jerusalem would have been the center, and the nations brought in under the ecclesiastical center of that Holy City. The commandments of Christ upon earth regulated all until the end came of the age, but it was given so generally that the principle was clear to act on. But, as within that circle (till God removes it) the end of the age is come, and new energies, or newly ordered, have taken place by the Apostle of the Gentiles, who was no witness of the life of Jesus and His personal words and ways, but, born out of due time, received all part according to that energy by revelation, so he tell us in Galatians. It was another character of things.
19, 20. This text becomes extremely important for the ministry to be exercised in the last days. The age is not then ended. “In the Name" used, which was already revealed in the Lord's life-time, though not thus completed and put together, so to speak. It is not however a ministry which the Jews characterize as its object. But, though all power be given, it is ministry which flows from a risen, not yet from an ascended and glorified Savior.
In this chapter of Matthew, though often noted in detail, I sum up a little as a whole. First, it is not Touch me not...I go to My Father and your Father,' but resurrection. The women touch Him, and do Him homage. Then next, the connection with the disciples is Galilee, where the great light had been seen, and where He had been associated with the poor of the flock. Now, all power was given Him in heaven and on earth, but we have no ascension, no personal place, as Son, taken with the Father, but all power given Him, which we have to remember. Hence, it reaches out beyond Judaism, and He sends His disciples to disciple all the Gentiles, “baptizing them in the Name," etc. Here we have nothing of salvation nor belief, but, all power being given Him, He is Lord, and they are to be subject to the faith, and then to teach them to do what was commanded. In a certain providential way this has been done, though not universally, and not as really completing this commission. And there is the promise—is to be with them to the end of the age; that is not Church time, but till Messiah came closing the age in this world. Such was the thought they had of it, and in which the Lord speaks, the meaning of it in Scripture. Paul's message was quite different. He is sent to the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His Name. The nature of his commission is quite different, and the twelve gave up the Gentiles to him. They were not up to the height of this commission, whatever may have been historically done. Luke's commission is evidently different—has a moral character—that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His Name, beginning at Jerusalem. They are to wait for power, but there is no "to the end of the age," and He goes up to heaven, and blesses them thence.
The Matthew commission was never carried into execution in Scripture, but merely dropped. The Acts are entirely the Luke commission, “repentance and remission of sins... beginning at Jerusalem." Nor did they flee from Jerusalem, according to Matt. 10. Then Paul, as often seen, receives the Gentile commission in a new way, from the glory. The Judaism, which harassed him, became practically dominant, and carried out the Matthew commission, only according to his statement in Galatians, it returned to heathenism (in popery) when it returned to Judaism.
The kingdom comes in, in Matthew, by Son of David Emmanuel, but He must be owned Son of God to be received—that they will not. We might (if man were not what he is) suppose His going to heaven then, and the heavenly character of the kingdom set up. But, rejected, the kingdom of heaven takes the form of the parables. Then He takes to Him His great power, and reigns—puts in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.
There was a special presentation to the Jews in Acts 3, in virtue of Christ's intercession on the Cross, but this was rejected. Galilee goes on, “To us a son is born." And so Matt. 10 and 28, and suitably chapter 24 contrasted with Luke 21. Only Matthew 10 is the Jewish part—chapter 28, the Gentile, consequent on it. With Paul's we know the ministry of the Church came. The “Son of Man" is a wider sphere, passing into Psa. 8 from Psa. 2, as Nathaniel, John 1. But He receives the kingdom, too, as Son of Man, Dan. 7, but over all nations. The “Son of God" is a personal name, not a royal name, I apprehend, as to the kingdom, the kingdom which belongs to the Son. It is the religious side ensures the earthly part, as in Psa. 2, the decree as to the exalting of Him who had the throne as given from heaven. This is true as to priesthood even in Heb. 5:55So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. (Hebrews 5:5).