Our Old Testament reading this morning is Genesis chapter one. I’m not sure what page that is in your pew Bible. Just kidding. Genesis one, we’ll be reading all of chapter one and the first four verses of chapter two. It’s a little bit longer of a reading. I was tempted to cut it, but the New Testament reading is significantly shorter, so. We’ll get through all seven days of creation this morning, or six days of creation. Genesis 1, beginning in verse 1. Hear now God’s word. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
And God said, let there be light, and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening, and there was morning the first day.
And God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters. And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse heaven.
And there was evening and there was morning the second day. And God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear. And it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called seas.
And God saw that it was good. And God said, let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind on the earth. And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed. each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
And there was evening and there was morning the third day. And God said, let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years. And let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater lights to rule the day and the lesser lights to rule the night and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning the fourth day.
And God said, let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens. So God created the great sea creatures, and every living creature that moves with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.
And there was evening, and there was morning, the fifth day. And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, livestock, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth according to their kinds. And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good. Then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.
And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done. And he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it, God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
Thus far the reading of God’s word. And now for our New Testament reading, I would invite you to turn to the gospel of Matthew chapter 28. Matthew chapter 28, we’ll be reading verses 16 through 20. Or you can just look on the back wall if you want a reminder. Matthew 28, verses 16 through 20.
Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Thus far the reading of God’s word. Would you pray with me? our Father in heaven, we give you thanks for the word that we have just read. Lord, we thank you that you have not left us without knowledge, you have not left us without the revelation of yourself, Lord, for indeed, apart from you revealing yourself to us, condescending to us, Lord, we would have no hope of salvation. And so we thank you that your word is clear, and we pray that in this time you would illuminate your word to us, God, that you would use it to shape us, that it would Take root deep in our hearts by the powerful working of your spirit. And I do pray in this time that the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts would be acceptable in your sight. Oh, Lord, our rock and our Redeemer. For we pray all this in Jesus name. Amen. congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In God’s providence, the last several times that I have been with you from this pulpit, I have happened to come on days that traditionally the church has observed for various, as various high points of the Christian message. I was here last Pentecost, I was here during Advent last December, and now this morning, surprise, surprise, I come on what the church has historically, or much of the church has historically observed as Trinity Sunday.
This is a day when many churches stop and pause to reflect on that wonderful foundational doctrine, that great doctrine that is revealed in scripture that we worship one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It’s my joy to be with you, whether or not you observe that.
I mean, it’s great to stop and to think about the Trinity. We should be thinking often about the Trinity. I love the quote from one of the church fathers as he talks about meditating on this great truth. He says, you know, as I meditate on the oneness of God, it draws me to the three. And as I think about the three, it draws me back to the one. And that should be our practice, to meditate on this deep mystery of our triune God.
And in particular, as we come To the the sermon text that we just read from from Matthew’s gospel the of course the well-known Great Commission that Jesus delivers to his 11 Apostles We we see of course here. This is really We could say the the marching orders that that Jesus gives his final words as he’s about to go back to the father Right. He gives us he gives the disciples these final words this final Commission that they are to fulfill in this age. And really, we could say that this commission is a vision. It is a summary of what it means to be a Christian in this age, to follow the Great Commission.
And yet in this, in the midst of this wonderful short passage, we get this wonderful statement as Jesus talks about baptism. He says that we are to baptize, that they are to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Of course, the doctrine of the Trinity is very clear in Scripture. We see it, you know, merging. We see kind of maybe hints or shadows in the Old Testament, and then we see it in full clarity as the Gospel comes, as Jesus takes on flesh. But perhaps no clearer do we see it articulated than in that phrase, as Jesus says, to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
And as we take those two ideas, we have this great commission that Jesus gives to his disciples, and we have this beautiful Trinitarian formula that he sends them out with. I want us to consider not only this passage in light of the doctrine of the Trinity, but really the whole of the Christian life. I want us to see that the doctrine of the Holy Trinity ought to shape, ought to be fundamental to the way we go into the world. as Christians. So that is our theme this morning, that there is indeed a fundamental Trinitarian shape, you could say, to the Christian life, which is revealed in this Great Commission.
And so this brings us to our first point, the first facet of this Trinitarian shape of the Christian life, and that is our Trinitarian commission, that we are given as the church a Trinitarian commission to go And that is, very simply, that is the command that Jesus gives to the disciples.
What is the job of the church? It is to go. Go make disciples of all nations. And of course, Jesus specifically, he tells the 11 to meet with him. This is a commission in particular to the apostles of the church, to those who would found, who would begin the New Testament church. But of course, we could say by extension, this is the mission of the church throughout the ages, right? This is our task to take up this commission, to go into all the nations, to teach what Jesus has revealed to us. And while it is abundantly clear what Jesus is telling them to do, it’s a very simple command.
Two letters in English, go. To grasp the meaning or to maybe flesh out more what Jesus is saying, to see how it fits into the whole of Scripture, we want to go back to the beginning. That is in part why we’ve read Genesis 1 this morning. Because we see very clearly echoed in the Great Commission what we saw in Genesis 1.
As God creates the world, as He creates man in His image, we see there, too, there is this commission, this charge given to Adam and Eve. In Genesis 1, I mean, if you want to have Scriptural proof of the Trinity you really have to go no further than Genesis 1 1 that God created the heavens and the earth John tells us that you know The word was there that all things were created through the word and then we see the Spirit hovering over the face of the deep and as the Trinity God and in the six days of creation creates fashions perfects this beautiful creation that is made We see this culminating work this culminating point of creation where God speaks.
Even in that phrase, let us make man in our image, we see hints of that triune conversation. Let us make man in our image, and God creates man. And in this creation, I love the way Meredith Klein puts it, that man’s creation was also a coronation. That not only was he the last of God’s works, but he was the pinnacle, that God charges man as the high point of creation with this task, right?
To have dominion over all things, over all the created order, and to go and be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and to subdue it. God is the ruler over all. He sets man up as this vice regent, this prince. And the task is to go from Eden and to spread God’s kingdom, to spread God’s glory to the very ends of the earth. And yet, very shortly after what we just read, man will squander that authority. Man will glory in himself. Man will try to usurp that power and will fundamentally derail that mission which God had tasked him to do.
And now we see on the top of this mountain, we have Jesus in his resurrected body gathering the 11, and he gives them this charge, go and make disciples of all nations. And yet you’ll notice this time it’s not the 11 who have this authority as Adam did. Adam was given dominion and he was charged to go.
But notice Jesus says, he begins with the statement, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore you go and make disciples of all nations. I’m the one in charge, therefore I’m charging you to take this message to the ends of the earth. And yet, if we’d stop and think about that phrase for a second, it’s interesting. He says, all authority has been given to me, which begs the question, by whom?
By whom has Jesus been given all this authority? And of course, scripturally, if you read through the Gospels, the clear implication is the Father. The Father has granted this authority to the Son. You want to ask, well, doesn’t Jesus just have authority? He is, again, going back to our Trinitarian theology, He is the second person of the Trinity. Doesn’t He have authority as creator and sustainer of that creation?
And here, too, we have this great mystery that We see in this passage, it’s not only echoing Genesis 1 in that original mandate, but also there’s hints of another passage we see, and that’s from Daniel chapter 7. As Daniel’s given this vision of this one who is coming, this messianic figure, we see this. Daniel says, I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like the Son of Man.
And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. And his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed. So we have this great mystery in Daniel, right, that God grants a kingdom to God.
You know, how does that work? And of course, we solve that puzzle, that riddle, by seeing that God the Father grants a kingdom to God the Son as He comes in flesh. He takes on human form. that he accomplishes a work that was planned from before the creation of the world, and that this God-man, this second person of the Trinity who takes on flesh, that he now is granted a kingdom, that in light of his successful achievement, in light of his accomplished work, he is granted to be, we could say, our mediator. He is granted to be the one at the highest place, at the right hand of the Father. This wonderful Trinitarian mystery of the three persons of the One, the Son taking on flesh, of Him becoming our mediator. This thing, again, that we can revel in, that we can just meditate on, and it’s beautiful to us. But perhaps as surprising, if not more surprising, than that revelation that God takes on flesh, that He acquires a kingdom for himself is the fact that then right after he resurrects from the dead, he grants that kingdom to 11 Jewish fishermen.
He says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. I’m going to take over the world. Now it’s on you. Now it’s your job to continue this task. I’ve done everything. Now it’s your job to go. to spread this message. And not just surprising that they would be the ones, but as we consider ourselves, that God would task us with this mission of going to the ends of the world.
And as we think about that, just how large of a task that we ought to save the world, that we ought to proclaim this message. It is truly a daunting task. And not just daunting, it truly in our own strength, it is an impossible task. that if it were up to us, if we were left to our own devices to try and do what Jesus is commissioning, that we would be hopeless, right, as we consider our own weaknesses, as we consider the enemies which we face on a daily basis. We have no power to do what Jesus commissions us, and yet we go confidently.
Year after year, generation after generation, the church goes out and continues this mission. Why can we be so confident that this will be fruitful, that we will be successful? And it is because not only do we see that this commission is from our triune God, that God himself is commissioning this, but also we trust that this mission is empowered by our triune God.
Or in short, you could just say it’s really wonderful to be a Calvinist. It’s wonderful to have this task, which again is daunting. We cannot do it in our own strength, but we do it confidently as we know the truth that we go to make disciples of those who have been chosen by God from before the foundations of the earth. We are going to claim to redeem the lost, to redeem those sheep which God has chosen, right, those who know their father or their shepherd’s voice.
As we go, sent by the Son, sent by the one who took on flesh, who has accomplished salvation, who redeems his people. And then in just a few short days from what Jesus says here, we go in the power of the Holy Spirit, who is sent to empower the church, to equip the church, to raise dead people back to life, to give new life, to give faith. And we see from these 11, we see on the day of Pentecost, 120 disciples who have remained throughout Jesus’s life and death. And then by the end of the first sermon of Pentecost, 3,000 souls, we are told, come to faith. 3,000 people are brought, are made to be disciples of the one true God. So we go out confidently knowing God is accomplishing his plan of salvation. He’s accomplishing this commission that he charges us with through us, through weak vessels.
We go out with this commission. You know, Jesus says go, but of course we wanna dig in. What exactly, what is the charge? We are to go, right? We are to move in a direction, but what is the content of this mission? What are we to do as we go into all the nations?
And that is our second point this morning. We not only have a Trinitarian commission, but we go out, secondly, with a Trinitarian confession. Secondly, we have a Trinitarian confession to offer to the world. So again, this is, in many ways, a recapitulation, a renewal, in some ways, of the creation mandate. this charge to spread God’s kingdoms to the end of the earth, but again, how?
How do we go about, with what power, with what weapons do we go into the world to conquer it? Do we go out with the sword? Do we go out with lofty rhetoric, with military power? Well, no, Jesus says, go into the world and make disciples. That’s how we conquer the world, by making disciples of Jesus.
Of course, that word disciples, you could translate it students. This idea at the time, you would have a rabbi and he would have his learners, his disciples who would follow him around. They would essentially become copies of him that they would then one day become rabbis. And this, it would be like a MLM would kind of perpetuate. But right, these are disciples of Jesus and they are to make more disciples, not of themselves, but more disciples of Jesus.
So how do we take over the world, Christians? We catechize. We teach. We communicate sound doctrine. We teach the Bible. And it’s perhaps no surprise to us that the great summary of Christian truth, the great summary of the faith is Trinitarian. What does the church confess throughout all times and places? That great summary, the Apostles’ Creed, I mean there is a, you know, we believe in God the Father, we believe in Jesus Christ as only Son, and we believe in the Holy Spirit. Or, you know, expand it a little bit in the Nicene Creed, but from the beginning the statement of faith of the church has been Trinitarian. Or as you think about all the great debates, all the times when the church’s doctrine was under threat, it so often was at those points of Trinitarian doctrine.
Who is the Son? What is the relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit? And the churches had to clarify that. The churches had to stand on that bedrock truth of this one in three God. So it’s not just that the church confesses these things to be true, but really this confession, this confession of our faith, of Father, Son, and Spirit, is what defines us. We are identified by this confession.
This is somewhat of an aside, but if you ever are wondering, if you’re not sure how to communicate the faith, if you’re ever talking to a non-believer or someone who has some general idea of Christianity, and just walk them through the Apostles’ Creed. Walk them through what we believe. We believe there is a God. He’s the creator of all things. We believe that he sent his son, et cetera. But more than just the fact that we identify with this Trinitarian doctrine, there’s another aspect that Jesus is revealing to us. He says, teach this doctrine, but also he’s saying be baptized into this Try you name. A lot of ink has been spilled over the ordering, right?
You know, do we have to baptize, or teach first and then we baptize? And, you know, we do both. You know, the job of the church is to baptize and to teach. Sometimes we teach first and then over time they come, people come to faith and they’re brought in, they’re baptized. Or as one brother said, we disciple the old-fashioned way, right? We bring children in the church, we baptize them, and then over time we catechize them into the faith.
But the point being, not only as disciples do we take upon ourselves the triune name, do we confess these things, but in coming into the church, in becoming disciples, in baptism, our triune God places his name upon us. that the church is not simply defined by what we confess about God, but the church is defined by God confessing his name to us, confessing that we are his, confessing that we belong to him. And baptism so clearly reveals that, that in baptism, God declares about us, you are mine, that you belong to me, that your sins are forgiven, that you are a new creation, That we don’t just confess the doctrine of the Trinity, we don’t just confess theology, but we belong to our triune God. We belong to him. We are, you know, as that great refrain of the Old Testament, that I will be your God and you will be my people.
And of course, Jesus stresses here as we think about, you know, having right doctrine. You know, Jesus says, you know, teach everything that I’ve commanded you. In other words, don’t take shortcuts. Teach the full doctrine of God. Make sure that you don’t waver from that. Everything, every jot and tittle we are to take care to uphold.
But we ought to ask, what is the point of having the most nuanced, perfectly articulated Trinitarian theology? if it doesn’t bring us to the worship and the adoration of the one true God. That is the point of knowing these things to be true, to come into worship of that God who has revealed himself. to us, or as I love how John says so clearly in 1 John, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands concerning the word of life, that life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. That which we have seen and heard we proclaim to you so that you may have fellowship with us. And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
That is the goal. The goal of going into the world and making disciples is to bring people into that fellowship, participation, or communion with our living God. So what is our task in this age? What does it mean to make disciples, baptizing, and teaching. I mean, it means a lot of things, but at least at its core, what it means is we preach the gospel to all men.
We preach the saving message of what our triune God has done to bring us back to himself. We proclaim a message, an announcement of what the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have done to restore fallen sinners to fellowship with him. I mean, think about a verse like John 3.16, you know, for God the Father so loves the world that he sends God the Son to save us from our sins, that whoever should believe by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit in their lives, and I’m expanding a little bit, but whoever should believe shall not perish, but have everlasting life with their God. John Piper has that great quote. He says that the reason that missions exist is because worship doesn’t. Maybe to modify that a little bit for our purposes this morning, the reason discipleship exists is because the worship of our triune God does not.
So we go to all nations, we go to all people, we teach them, we baptize them, we bring them into that fellowship and into that worship. Brothers and sisters, as we take on this task, and it truly is a daunting task. It is a task that takes our whole lives. It takes generations of the church. We want to ask, what is that which grounds us?
What is that which we rest upon, which we you know draw hope from we draw encouragement from as we go into the world with that message and That brings us to our third point this morning. We go out into into the world with our Trinitarian comforts I know when you’re Bolton it says consolation but I’m changing it to comfort. Our Trinitarian comfort, consolation is kind of, the meaning is softened over time, it’s like consolation trophy, but what is our comfort, right? Like the Heidelberg Catechism one, what is your only comfort in life and in death?
And here as Jesus gives this hard task to the church, As He so often does when He gives us a command, He also gives us the strength to do it. He gives us the encouragement. And as He gives us this task, He concludes by saying this beautiful promise, lo or behold, I am with you, even to the very end of the age. Here, very artfully, He bookends the whole story of Matthew.
You’ll recall in Matthew 1, the promise was that Jesus would be Emmanuel, that He would be God with us. And then as Jesus is about to depart, he says, lo, I am with you, I am Emmanuel now. This is going to be hard, I’m giving you this task, but you are going in my authority, and I am with you, I am your strength. Which is a great promise, but as we all know, shortly after this, Jesus is going to depart. He’s going to ascend to the right hand of the Father.
And yet we know Jesus doesn’t renege on his promises. He’s not being wishy-washy here. No, Jesus will be with us. Jesus is with us throughout this age. As again, we see in just a few short days, he pours out the Holy Spirit upon his church, the spirit which Paul calls the spirit of Christ. And in the coming of the spirit, not only can we say Jesus is with us, but also that Jesus is in us, he dwells in us, he abides in us. And brothers and sisters, this promise that Jesus gives, that he will be with his disciples always, it is nothing less than the assurance that we always have access to our triune God.
There’s this great summary theologically as we talk about the way God works in the world. When you think about the work of creation or we think about the work of redemption, we can summarize it by saying that all things are from the Father, in the Son, by the Spirit. That’s kind of the movement of the way God works in the world. Again, we see that in the act of creation.
We see that in the way God sends the Son and then the Spirit. And what’s beautiful is that now, as we are redeemed in Christ, because of Jesus’s accomplished work, that we now have access to that same movement, but in reverse, that as Christians, that by the Spirit, we now have access in the Son to the Father.
And that is what Jesus is communicating, that I am with you, and that because I am with you, you have access at all times to God. So hear this promise, Christian, once again this morning, that Jesus is with you even to the end of the age. Especially now, I mean, how much more so now as we come to gather and worship our triune God.
We can trust that Christ is near us, that Christ is near you. That He is near us as we take up this great commission. We can trust Christ is always at work. Christ is always sufficient to supply our needs. That we go out in all generations in His authority, by His power and His strength. That power that was granted by the Father, that power that is enabled by the Holy Spirit in us.
As we go throughout this life, as we struggle at times with discouragement, as we struggle with fear, we know that that same Jesus has sent His Spirit, right, the Spirit into our hearts to comfort us, the Spirit by which we can cry out, Abba, Father, to our Heavenly Father. And even as we fail to live up to the name that has been placed upon us in baptism, we know we also have Christ near to us as an advocate, as a mediator, That always in Christ that we have access to God’s throne of grace, we have access to forgiveness. As Jesus concludes, note lastly that this promise is not indefinite, meaning it’s not just a perpetual, I’m gonna be with you for all times in perpetuity. But no, I am with you always, even and unto the end of the age, he says. And when will that be? When is the end of the age? Well, we don’t know in one sense. We’re still waiting.
Lord Jesus, come quickly. But what it does mean is Jesus will be with us by his spirit until that day when he returns in power. Until all God’s saving purposes are accomplished. When that last disciple is made, when that last member of God’s family is baptized into that triune name, We know at that point, God will return. Our triune God will come back to us. We will be with him. And that last saint is claimed. Jesus returns.
We will, at that point, be brought to the very purpose of our existence. Again, we are made disciples so that one day, not just now by faith, but one day by sight, we will worship our triune God for all eternity. So brothers and sisters, let us direct our eyes now and always towards that God who loves us, who has saved us, and who will redeem us.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Let us pray. O Lord, as the angels cry out in Isaiah, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And as we see in Revelation, to him who was and who is and who is to come, Lord, we thank you that we can cry out to you as our thrice holy God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Oh God, we do pray for strength, that you would help us in this commission, that we would be eager, that we would be willing to go into all the nations and make disciples. Lord, help us at all times to remember that we have been baptized into your name, that we represent you to the world. God, help us to trust that that means that you are with us, that you will sustain us, and that indeed, you do love us. We pray all this in Jesus’ name, amen.