Right before he ascends to heaven, Jesus gives his disciples some instructions. He sends them out into the world to “Go therefore 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 that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
This “Great Commission” is given not only to the 11 disciples who heard it in person, but to us as well! And so is the promise—the last words recorded in Matthew’s gospel: “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Today’s Holy Trinity Sunday sermon on the Great Commission digs into our instructions from Jesus and celebrates the promise of God’s ongoing presence with us.
This week’s readings are 2 Corinthians 13:11-13, Psalm 8, and Matthew 28:16-20. Here’s this week’s sermon podcast audio and livestream from Christ the King.
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Grace to you and peace in the name of Jesus. Amen
We’re not officially doing a sermon series right now, but I realized this week that today is kind of the third part of a trilogy.
Two weeks ago, we heard the story of Jesus’ Ascension, and I focused on the disciples carrying on his mission, the transition that Jesus’ followers are now doing his work.
Last week, we celebrated Pentecost—the coming of the Holy Spirit—where the Church is born, and the Holy Spirit comes and fills Jesus’ followers, empowers them to do the work.
Today, we’re jumping back to the Ascension story—Matthew’s version this time—and I want to look closely at what exactly Jesus tells his followers to do. Not just carry on my work, not just keep doing the things I do, but what exactly they are supposed to do—what exactly we are supposed to do as the body of Christ.
This Gospel reading is short, but it’s important. Certain passages of Scripture are known by shorthand names, like the Beatitudes, the longer Sermon on the Mount. These last words of Jesus before he ascends to heaven are known as the Great Commission. They’re instructions for us.
Here’s the Gospel reading from Matthew 28, beginning at verse 16.
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted.
I love verse 17. They worshiped him, but they doubted. You might remember the whole series we did back in the fall on wrestling with doubt and finding faith, because everyone has doubts.
Wrestling with doubts doesn’t mean you don’t have faith; doubt and faith go together. Even these disciples worshiping in the presence of the risen Jesus, they have doubts. And Jesus doesn’t reprimand them or lecture them for doubting; he commissions them. He sends them.
Verse 18:
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples
We are people who are sent. Jesus entrusts his mission to us, and he tells us to go. We carry out his work, we do the things he did. We care about what Jesus cares about. You can’t follow Jesus and stay exactly as you were. Following involves moving. Going.
And what are we sent to do? Go therefore and make disciples.
So…what is a disciple? A disciple is a follower, a learner. Disciples pursue their teacher (their master). I like discipleship.org’s definition: “A disciple of Jesus is someone who is following Jesus, being changed by Jesus, and is committed to the mission of Jesus.”
Or as we might say here, disciples are:
(Christ the King:) Rooted in Christ, Nurturing Faith, Loving and Serving All
(Living Hope) Alive in Faith, Loving God and Neighbor, Living Hope.
A disciple is someone whose life is oriented toward Jesus. People committed to being part of the Jesus movement.
Disciples insist there is a better way of life than the ways of this world, insist on love. Disciples have the holy imagination to see God’s kingdom breaking into this world, and work toward it. Disciples take Jesus seriously as God’s Word made flesh, God’s self-revelation of love.
So we make disciples by going and proclaiming good news, proclaiming the foolish proclamation of grace, mercy, and love, the good news that death and war and violence and poverty and suffering and sickness don’t get the last word, but that love wins.
We invite our neighbors to join us in believing the end of the story is life, eternal life, undeserved blessedness in the presence of our loving Creator.
Disciples are sold out to God’s vision, the vision of Jesus who preached good news to the poor, who declared blessed even those who weep, the hungry, and the meek. Jesus who bids us to love our enemies, to be peacemakers. Disciples dare to live in hope.
And Jesus says to make disciples of all nations. Everyone’s included. Back to last week, this is the message of Pentecost, right? God’s Spirit is poured out on all flesh.
Most of God’s story ran through a particular family, who became a people and a nation, God’s chosen people. But God’s work is not limited to a certain ethnic group, a particular nation. Jesus’ disciples are sent to all nations, all over the world.
That might sound obvious to you and me—we’re not Jewish, but of course we’re included in God’s promise, of course we’re invited to become followers of Jesus—but it was a big shift in the early church.
Some of the biggest controversies we read about in the New Testament are about who’s included, who’s invited to follow Jesus. Paul spends a lot of time in his letters arguing against people who want everyone to become Jewish before they become Christian.
Jesus himself earlier in his ministry had said at one point (Matthew 15:24) that he was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. And that is where his earthly ministry took place. Jesus was a Jewish messiah.
But in the Great Commission, Jesus sends out his followers to all nations. As 1 John 2 says, “Jesus Christ…is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
When we talk about being sent to all nations, it’s easy to think of it as us being sent to “them”—to some group of far-away “others”—but you and I are no more insiders than anyone else. And if we can be included, so can everyone else. God’s vision includes all nations.
So how exactly do we make disciples of all nations? What does this commission look like?
It looks like baptizing.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them.
We obviously talk a lot about baptism in the church, and there are all kinds of images in Scripture for what happens in baptism. It’s adoption into God’s family, it’s salvation like an ark in a flood, a branch grafted onto a tree, drowning the old self, putting on a new garment, all kinds of beautiful images for what God accomplishes in baptism.
But the primary reason we baptize is because of this verse, because Jesus said to do it. Baptism is a means of grace, a way God claims and redeems us.
Sometimes we make the mistake of treating baptism like it’s a boundary marker, a line to keep people in or out, like it’s something exclusive. But baptism is the church’s ritual of welcome. It’s the way God has told us to welcome people into the Christian movement, the church, the body of Christ. It’s inclusion, inviting people into the story, welcoming everyone into God’s dream, God’s vision of life.
Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Baptism is not something we do on our own; it’s God’s work, God’s action. We baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Here’s the Trinity Sunday connection in today’s Gospel.
We believe in the Triune God. God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Baptism draws us into relationship with the God who is Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier, three-in-one and one-in-three. One God eternally existing in three persons.
How exactly does that work? We don’t know. God’s not bound by human descriptions or logic. Over 2,000 years, this is the best math Jesus’ followers have come up with: 1+1+1=1 Maybe it works better as 1x1x1=1.
The point is that God made us, we know God through Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is present with us, drawing us to God. There’s mystery in faith. We believe in one God, and we baptize in the name of God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And we teach.
And teaching them
You and I are here today because someone lived out this great commission. Jesus calls us to teach, to pass on faith, to invite others in. That’s why we have Bible studies, and sermons, and Sunday School. That’s why we invite people to Vacation Bible School.
We believe the hope we have in Jesus is worth digging into, exploring, and passing on.
to obey everything that I have commanded you.
Obeying isn’t about laws and rules. There’s a constant temptation to turn the Jesus movement into a moral standard, to make something like VBS or children’s sermons or Sunday School about finding the moral lessons.
And how we live is important! Jesus’ vision involves people living with justice, treating neighbors fairly, living God’s way, following the commandments. May we be a church that lives that out.
But obedience—especially joyful obedience—flows from living as disciples. Obeying Jesus’ commands comes from hearing the good news of God’s love for you, not from fear of punishment. Grace and gospel, not fear and law.
Some of the saddest parts of our history as church come from when the church tries to make Christian living into laws, when the church tries to become a government and demand obedience. Disciples are made by invitation, not by coercion.
That’s where so-called Christian nationalists get it wrong: Our goal is not a “Christian nation” but to faithfully live out the way of Jesus within the world. Not imposing our values on others, but living out our faith by seeking the common good, blessing our neighbors in Jesus’ name. As I saw someone say this week, “We don’t need a Christian nation, we need Christ-like Christians.”
As baptized disciples, we obey what Jesus said because we believe in his way of life. We believe God’s kingdom is better than anything this world can offer.
And remember,
Remembering is hard. That’s why we gather week after week, to be reminded of our mission, to be reminded of who God is and who we are in Christ.
I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Remember the promise: Disciples don’t go out alone. God is present with us. The Holy Spirit equips and empowers us to do God’s work, to continue walking in Jesus’ way. We are God’s hands and feet in the world because God is working through us.
There’s a blessing I learned from college ministries at Luther College, and I’ve shared this blessing as a benediction before, but I’ll invite you to read it with me today in closing:
Go now, to live lives filled with laughter and with pain, knowing that God is with us in the dark and in the light, in our abundance and in our emptiness, in every moment of our lives.
And hear again the command of Jesus:
“Go therefore 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 that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Amen