Another Chapter, Same Mission (Matthew 28:16-20)

THE SEASON AFTER PENTECOST – SAY IT OUT LOUD

God is Triune

ANOTHER CHAPTER, SAME MISSION

Welcome to worship today at Morrison Zion Lutheran Church. We exist to glorify God. We have set out to do this by gathering around the Gospel so that we may grow in the Gospel and go to others with this Gospel.

CHILDREN’S DEVOTION

We are going to talk about the cell phone. Do we understand how a cell phone works? Can you explain to me the radio frequency radiation that this thing gives off, the waves that it gives off and tell me how this communicates my faith onto the internet and somewhere else? You say, “No, I don’t understand all those things, but I know it works. I know I can call grandma and grandpa on this thing. I know that I can play games on it all the time and it works.”

The same thing is true with the Triune God. We say it’s such an easy thing, three persons yet one God, but the more you think about it, the more complicated and bigger God becomes. How is it that He can be three persons and one God? The more we think about it, the more it is complicated. But the point is not that we understand it. The point is that this Triune God is there for you.

With the cell phone, the point is not that we understand everything but that we use it. The same thing is true with the Triune God. The point isn’t that the Triune God is something we understand but it’s something that this Triune God engages with us in our lives and saves us. He forms us in our mother’s wombs. God the Father, God the Son, saving us, God the Holy Spirit bringing us to faith through the means of grace. So we pray:

Triune God, we oftentimes don’t always understand who you are and how big you are and we get lost in that but we rejoice that you are a God who comes to us in your Word and Sacrament, reminding us who you are and how much you love us. We pray this in your name. Amen.

SERMON

Grace, mercy and peace are yours from God our Father through our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ.

Direct us now, O gracious Lord, to hear aright your Holy Word.

Assist your minister to preach, and let the Holy Spirit teach.

Let eternal life be found by all who hear the Gospel sound. Amen.

On Trinity Sunday, we express two things at the same time—how big and enormous and how unsearchable the Triune God is—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But then we also confess at the same time that this Triune God is very active in each of our lives. As I mentioned before, the Father knits us together in our mother’s womb. The Son is the one who saves us individually. He is the one who is thinking of you when He says “Father, forgive them.” And God the Holy Spirit, who through a very personal way through the water and Word brought you to faith, also strengthens you in this faith through the Word and the Lord’s Supper. So God is very big, but also is very personable.

Jesus this morning is speaking on behalf of this big God and saying to each one of us “Go. Make disciples. Take this big God and the information that this big God has revealed and reveal this personally to people. That’s your mission.”

Today our focus, our thought, is another chapter, same mission.

For the disciples up to this point, Jesus had been making disciples. He was the one that was doing that through His Word. He was backing up His Word through miracles, but now Jesus says “You guys are going to have my Word and you guys are going to go out and make more disciples.”

Let’s back up and get some context to Matthew’s words from Matthew 28. Matthew is like a bunny hopping from one event to the other, especially when it comes to Easter. He has the women going to the tomb and has Jesus saying to the women “Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee to the place where I will tell them.” Then they go and they tell the disciples, but there is a bunny hop over. You know the Emmaus disciples, Peter and John, running to the tomb and all those events that we know happened. Then He bunny jumps from the women going to the disciples to the disciples going to the mountain where Jesus told them to go. But as He is doing these bunny hops here in Matthew 28, He sets the scene for us in Verses 16 and 17, where they went to the mountain. They saw Him. They worshipped Him, but some doubted. Some were hesitant. This is the entire scene. And then Verses 18 to the end is Jesus taking that scene and going right to the one point where Jesus comes to them and speaks the words (we’ll get to that later).

Right now I want to focus on why did they doubt? Why were they “I’m not so sure about this”? What was that all about? In their doubt, the eleven disciples are no different than their ancestors. The Israelites had been rescued by God from Pharaoh, ten miraculous plagues, the Red Sea dividing down, walking across on dry land, and God comes and says “Here is the promised land. Go spy this out. I will be with you” and they spy it out and they come back and they go “I’m not so sure about this.”

Why is it that their ancestors doubted God when He said “This is your Promised Land”? Why is it that the eleven disciples doubted when Jesus said “Here, go and make disciples. I will be with you”? Why? For the same reason you and I doubt when God says “Here’s my Word. Use it. This will make disciples.” “Well, I’m not so sure about that.” It’s because we have a sinful nature.

We can have all the evidence in front of us. We can have God doing wonderful miracles in front of us, bringing children to faith through the water and the Word, that giving of His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper for us and then God says to you, “Go talk to your friends and your family members about Jesus, about things that really matter, about their salvation,” and we go “Ah, I’m not so sure about that. I’m not so sure it’s going to work.” Where does that come from? The same sinful nature the Eleven had and their ancestors had. It does not excuse it by any means. God doesn’t just give us a pass and say “You’re just like everybody else so I won’t treat that seriously.”

God does treat that seriously. It is a sin to doubt the God of the universe. But Jesus comes to us and says “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Jesus comes to us and says “I earned the right to say these words and to send you out because I suffered and died for all of your sins, including the sins of doubt. Including the times when you said ‘I’m not so sure about this’ to God.” Jesus earned that through His life, death and resurrection.

So He says to us these wonderful words: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” What do we think about when we think of Jesus saying “authority”? We think of the fact that Jesus has the “right” to say those things. Jesus has the freedom to choose how He is going to accomplish this mission of making disciples. And He has the backing to do it, the authority, and the strength to do it.

In much the same way as road construction season. We give the government the authority to fix our roads. They have the right to fix those roads. They have the freedom to choose when to fix those roads. Of course, they are going to choose the most inopportune times for us, but they have the right to do that. They have the backing to do that. We pay our taxes. We support our government. That’s authority.

In church life, when we have a committee, we say “Committee, we want you to do these things. We want you to make a meal for us.” So the committee has the authority, the right to make that meal. They have the freedom to choose whether it’s going to be hot dogs or brats or hamburgers. And they have the backing, the support of their brothers and sisters in Christ, as they go about it. They have authority in that area of making a meal.

The same thing is true of your leadership team or counsels. We give them the authority to make decisions on our behalf. They have the right to make those decisions. They have the freedom to make those decisions. And they have our support as they make those decisions.

Jesus says to His disciples “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” God has given Him the right, the freedom, the backing, to grow His church. So Jesus says this is how it’s going to be. “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, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” The main verb, the main thought, the main command is “making” disciples. A secondary thought is the going. That’s important because this isn’t just the church going into all the world, going into all the ethnic groups of the world and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, but it illustrates a greater truth that the church is moving. Even if you’ve never lived outside of Wisconsin, Jesus is talking about movement, as you go. So as you go from one job to another, as you go from one chapter in your life to another, maybe you’re a single person but now you are married, now you have children, these different chapters in your life, as you are moving, making disciples. As you are engaging with your community and talking with your friends, make disciples. As you, as a church, are operating as a church, go and make disciples. And the movement, of course, gets bigger, so this going is a truth of the church of God whether individually or collectively from moving.

As I mentioned at the beginning, we’re at the beginning of combined worship of Morrison and Immanuel—another chapter. We’re moving and it’s the same mission. Make disciples—baptizing, teaching. As you think about that, are you asking yourself, “I’m not so sure about this”? Where is that coming from? Is that coming from a faith that is resting in the promises of Jesus, who says “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”? Or is it coming from a sinful nature that takes God and His Word and says “I’m not so sure”? If it is, then let us take that sin before Christ and have Him forgive it, just as He forgave those eleven disciples. He forgives us sinners. He still says, “…surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

What I love about Jesus when He says “I am with you always” is it isn’t just an individual you, because He’s talking to eleven people, but He is putting them in a group. And it reminds me of when Jesus also said, “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:10) Yes, Jesus is with you as you are individually trying to have that conversation with your family or your friends about Jesus, about something that really matters—making a disciple in your own little way. Jesus is with you. But Jesus is also with you as a group. As a unified congregation, Jesus is with you. That’s His promise.

No matter what station or chapter in life, our mission is always the same and our big God, who is far beyond our human comprehension, is also there for us individually, through His Word and His Sacraments, encouraging us that we are His own, that He is with us, and that He also has a mission for us, whether personally or collectively. Another chapter, same mission, same God, same Savior, same Word, same promise, same hope, same strength, same authority comes from Christ. Amen.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7) Amen.