Prayer: And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. Thank you, Jesus, that you are always with us. We praise you God for being so incredible, it is hard to find words to describe you, we thankyou for the uniqueness of the Trinity and the wonderful blessings we have through God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Lead and guide and open our hearts and minds to hear from and respond to you this morning I pray. Amen.
Jesus is with us. A great comfort we read at the very end of Matthew’s gospel. We know Jesus is with us because he sent his Holy Spirit to live in us as we celebrated at Pentecost last Sunday.
This Sunday we celebrate a church doctrine – the Trinity- one God in three. The Trinity is a term you won’t find anywhere in the Bible, but its truth is everywhere in the Bible.
It is taught right from the beginning in Genesis 1, when God created the heavens and the earth, we read that the ‘Spirit of God was hovering over the waters’, also that God says ‘let us make mankind in our image.’ In John chapter 1 we read that “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”
This word that was with God in the beginning is none other than Jesus. And Jesus repeatedly talked about his Father and in John 10 says that he and the Father are one. Then in John 14 Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in his name.
At the end of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus tells his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, baptising in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We celebrate Trinity Sunday after Pentecost because baptism in the Holy Spirit is a new thing. Remember John the Baptist said he baptized with water, but one was coming after him who would baptise with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus commands his disciples to baptise people into this new relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It symbolizes the rebirth he talked about to Nicodemus in John chapter 3 where he said one must be born again, born of water and the spirit. This baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit symbolises adoption into this new family.
Let’s look with fresh eyes at the great commission. These were Jesus’ last words to his disciples in the gospel of Matthew before he ascended to the Father and sent the Spirit; they are important and should not be taken lightly.
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20)
While there are 3 persons in the Trinity, there are also three aspects to the great commission.
- To go and make disciples of all nations,
- To baptise in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and
- To teach everything that Jesus commanded.
Firstly, what does it mean to “go”? It’s an action we are to do, ‘go’ is a verb, a ‘doing word’. As the disciples were propelled out of hiding behind the closed doors when the Spirit came upon them at Pentecost to announce the good news, we too are to move from our closed doors, from home, from church, into our neighborhood. Not everyone will be called to go to the ends of the earth, but we are called to our neighbours, our family our friends, the people we meet in our everyday lives. And today, many people from other ‘nations’ have come to us, and we are called to make disciples of them also.
How do we make disciples? We might begin by sharing a little story of our faith, inviting them to come to church or initially a church activity, or ideally something like an Alpha course where they can learn and discuss the Christian faith.
Then invite them to become a Christian, to believe in Jesus and follow him. This leads into the second aspect of the great commission… If they choose to become a follower of Jesus, we invite them to be baptised.
Jesus says we are to baptise people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All three persons were present and involved in Jesus’ baptism. Jesus himself of course was there, asking to be baptised, the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove, anointing him and the Father spoke from heaven saying, this is my son in whom I am well pleased.
Baptism is symbolic of a new and cleansed life committed to God, becoming part of his family, being filled with his Spirit.
Note that baptism comes second, not third in Jesus’ list. One does not have to know everything about God and obeying him before getting baptised. A person just needs to choose to believe in and follow Jesus.
Next comes the command to teach them to obey everything I commanded you.
How do we do that? Making sure they have a bible to read is always helpful, for that is where they will learn all about Jesus and his commands. But they may need help reading and understanding, so offer to read with them, invite them to bible study and today there are all sorts of helpful apps such as youversion with bible reading plans. I hear last month Jill talked about how helpful it was doing ‘Bible in one year” with Nicky Gumbel.
We are all disciples of Jesus if we choose to follow him, and we never stop learning and growing. As disciples we are called to go and make disciples, and then those disciples are called to go and make disciples and so on. This is how the Church grows.
However, we are generally not very good at obeying Jesus’ command to make disciples. His commission is to us, not just the 11 disciples 2000 years ago.
The Church in the west has been in decline, people no longer hear the good news of Jesus the way perhaps you did as you grew up. Religious education is generally banned in government schools. It is no longer the norm for families to attend church and take their children to Sunday School.
And so many churches have got stuck in maintenance mode rather than mission mode. More missionaries now come from countries like South Korea than from the west.
After meeting the risen Lord Jesus and being filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost the disciples couldn’t help but share their faith with enthusiasm and a desire for others to come into the wonderful relationship with God that they themselves knew.
Perhaps we need a new encounter with the risen Jesus and an infilling of the Holy Spirit to propel us to go and make disciples.
Or you may not feel you have the ability and gifts to do this. We are going to look at how we can share our faith over the next few weeks.
We may not all have a special gift of evangelism, but we are all asked to share our faith, modelling our lives on Jesus, shining his light, loving others. We need to be willing and to ask Jesus to give us boldness and the words to share our faith.
He does not leave us to do this on our own. He fills us with his Spirit, and as he says at the end of the great commission, he will never leave us nor forsake us.
He is with us every step of every day; in every encounter we have. And he wants us to be his presence with everyone we meet.
You may think that your own faith is not strong enough to be able to share. Well let’s have a look at one little verse you may have skipped over as we read this passage. Verse 17 says of the disciples who were gathered on the mountain; When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.
Jesus knows all about our doubts, but he calls us to worship him, and he commissions and sends us out to tell others regardless!
Sometimes we need to step out in faith, putting our trust in Jesus, even while we doubt. Often our faith is strengthened as we do this.
One person I read put it like this;
Doubt makes us vulnerable to grace. Doubt opens us up to the possibility that there is someone we can trust, and trusting in the face of our doubt is what faith really means. Trusting in the face of our doubt is what following Jesus really means. Helping others learn to trust Jesus in the face of their own doubt – that’s making disciples.
Finally, we don’t go and make disciples on our own authority, but under his. Jesus says that; All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go… We go with his authority to make disciples, baptise, and teach. In John 20:21 we read similar words to this great commission of Matthews. The risen Jesus appeared to the disciples saying, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’.
The Trinity is vital to our faith and understanding of who God is. We are sent by Jesus who has shown us the love of the Father and empowers us through the Holy Spirit to live our lives glorifying God. We are called to love God and to love others by going and making disciples that they too may be filled with his grace and come into a loving relationship with God- the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Let us pray… Father, forgive us for not obeying this commission from your Son Jesus. When we doubt, help us to step out in faith, fill and empower us with your Holy Spirit. May we be so full of your love and grace that we cannot help but love others into becoming your disciples. We pray this in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.