LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 79

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

Convention Sermon

❿ “The Final Command and Promise of Jesus”
Matthew 28:16–20 • Thursday Morning

By the Rev. Dr. Charles A. Gieschen, Professor of Exegetical theology
and academic Dean at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne
65th Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod | July 25, 2013

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which
Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him they worshiped
Him, 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.”

G

race to you and peace from God our Father and from
our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our reading from the end of the Gospel of Matthew sets
before you the command of our Lord Jesus instituting the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. If you want to debate this command, please
take your small queuing device and press 1 for pro or 2 for con.
Please queue now.
Brothers and sisters, thankfully we are not here this morning to
debate this command and the Gospel proclaimed here or to vote
on whether or not the Church should be baptizing and teaching.
We are here to receive and respond to this powerful word of Jesus
once again, to be challenged and comforted by it, so that when we
go from this assembly in a few hours, the Holy Spirit may use us
in making new disciples by baptizing, baptizing, baptizing and
teaching, teaching, teaching all the things Jesus commanded.
We usually give considerable weight to a person’s final words on
earth. I have vivid memories of conversations with my father in
the ICU of Holy Cross Hospital in Merrill, Wis., shortly before he
died in 2002. He did not talk about the weather or the Green Bay
Packers. He spoke of Jesus, heaven, faith, and family. When departure is near, loved ones often speak what is of central importance.
Among Jesus’ final weighty words on earth are the familiar words
of our text: “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.” Jesus gives us this command with refreshing clarity. We need
not have any doubts about the universal scope of His mission. We
are to make disciples of every age and every color because every
person is born a poor, miserable sinner in need of salvation. Or
about the centrality of Baptism and teaching in making disciples.
This is biblical, Lutheran missiology. Or about the specific words
that we are to use in baptizing. We baptize with water in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit because by this

C o n v e n t io n se r m o n s

Waiting on photo

trinitarian formula the name of the one and only true God is invoked so that He is present giving forgiveness, life, and salvation
to the baptized. This is the teaching of Jesus about our mission.
This is the teaching of the Scriptures. This is the teaching of the
ecumenical creeds and the rest of our Confessions. And this is the
teaching of our beloved Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod: make
disciples of all by baptizing and teaching. Jesus said it. The Holy
Spirit guided it to be recorded, and we believe it. Period. No debate.
The foundation of this climactic command is the great Gospel
pronouncement that precedes it: “All authority in heaven and
on earth has been given to Me.” Things never go as smoothly on
earth as they do in heaven; the reign of God is clear there but not
here. The lives of human beings, even our own, often reflect the
rebellious ways of the evil angels cast out of heaven more than
the ways of the good angels who serve there. That is why Jesus
taught us to pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” In
Jesus, however, the perfect reign of God was brought to earth.
In Jesus, the authority of Satan, sin, and death were conquered.
In Jesus, God’s will was finally done on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus is Immanuel, God with us, to win salvation for us. The pattern of our sinful disobedience was overcome with the perfect
obedience of Jesus, whose Baptism started Him on the path of
bearing our sin and paying for all of it at the cross. Sin, Satan,
and death have no authority over Jesus. He is risen and lives! It is
this divine authority that He gave to me on July 20, 1958, when I
was baptized, that He has given to you in your Baptism, and that
He wants to give to people of all nations. When you are joined to
Jesus in Baptism, you do not receive just a bit of His authority, a
bit of His righteousness, a bit of His forgiveness, and a bit of His
life. You receive it all!
All of this should lead us to have a passionate concern for those
who are not baptized or who have rejected their Baptism. How
many of you remember the days when the first trip that Lutheran
parents would take out of the house after coming home from the
2 0 1 3 C o n v e n t io n P r o c e e d i n g s

|

79