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These are two pains of a stainglass window at Mountainside Lutheran Church, Mt Wellington.
Baptism in water and the Holy Spirit
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Sometimes it’s easy for us to think of the great commission
at the end of Matthew as a bit tacked on the end of the gospel. A bit for those
who are super keen, super spiritual, super fans, kind of like the post credit teaser
scene at the end of a marvel cinematic universe movie... Usually as the credits
start to roll at the end of the film, movie goers get up and leave. At Marvel
movies the fans sit and watch through the credits and they are rewarded with one
last scene… things that let you know that this is not the end of the story…
that there will be another film. Now I wrote my sermon before I went to see the
Avenger’s end game, and I was interested to see what they would have as the post
credit scene.. and… well… well you’ll
have to see and hear it for yourself… But the commission is not like that, its
not the teaser for the sequel… it is an essential part of the story. The ongoing story of God’s kingdom…
Bible commentator F Dale Bruner states:
“Has anything like
the resurrection of Jesus Christ happened on our planet? Christians do not believe
so. Precisely because it is the event par excellence, it follows almost
naturally that the great responsibility of those who know this event is of
course, mission. The resurrection does not happen for its own sake, and
Matthew’s gospel does not end, therefore with the resurrection; it ends with
the great commission of world-wide mission.”
And because Jesus lives, you and I have an impelling purpose
for our lives, we are celled to make disciples of all nations, weather we are
or are not world travelling professional missionaries. I we are followers of
Jesus it is our calling.
There was another connection to this world
wide mission this week as we share in the sorrow and pain of our Sri Lankan
brothers and sisters who were killed in terrorist attacks as they celebrated
Easter like we were doing. As we wept with our Muslim neighbours in March, we
know experience the pain of our own family. It does not feel as close and as
real as what happened in Christchurch but in a real way ‘they are us’…
Today as we celebrate baptism in church, there is a further connection. It links us to that
ongoing commission of making disciples. Baptising them in the name of the
father, the Son and the Holy Spirit… and teaching them obey all that I have
commanded you.
It’s a full on service this morning but Let’s have a look at
Jesus commission.
Firstly, the risen Jesus tells us that all authority in
heaven and earth has been given to him. The disciples meet Jesus risen from the
dead and they worship him. As we mentioned last week, for these Jewish men
Jesus resurrection showed that Jesus is indeed the son of God, is Emmanuel God
with us, and so is worthy of our worship and adoration. As we mentioned last
week and some doubted isn’t that they doubted that it was Jesus, but that they
wrestled with the fact that worship was the right response. Remember Thomas’,
who was reluctant to believe without seeing, responded with ’My Lord and My
God’ when he encountered the risen Jesus.
Jesus has that authority, his kingdom, the kingdom of God,
the kingdom of heaven has been established. But even here we see that the
nature of Jesus Kingdom is different than a worldly kingdom. His kingdom is not
to be imposed on the world by military might, like the roman empire, or through
pollical means, rather in that upside down way it is to grow and develop and reach
into every nation and people group, as Jesus disciples, those who know Christ
and his resurrection Go and repeat the process that Jesus had done with his
first disciples… bought them into relationship with himself, walk together in a
loving community, and taught them by word and deed who he was and what it meant
to live in God’s kingdom and sent them out and walked with them as they to do the same.
Jesus says that process of discipleship making involves two
things. The first is baptism… Baptism is the gate way to discipleship. I don’t
want to go into a deep theological exploration of baptism today. But there is
so much in Christian baptism. It brings elements from the Jewish faith of
cleansing and purifying, Jews have ceremonial washing for pagan who convert to
Judaism, john the Baptist, called people to repent, to tun back to living a
life consistent with being God’s people and the way people responded was to be
baptised, it symbolised humbly wanting that old life gone and being made new
and clean. What makes Christian baptism unique is that it is done in the name
of the Father, the son and Holy Spirit. It is the unique understand of who God
is our triune God.
In our acts reading Peter calls people to be baptised in the
name of Jesus Christ. For Christians we see baptism as identifying with Jesus
death and his resurrection. Dying to self and becoming alive in Christ. We call
it a sacrament, because Jesus commanded us to it. It is an outward sign of an
inward reality. That we have moved from death into new life in Christ, that our
sins are forgiven by Christ. It is a public confession that we now belong to
Christ.
The second part of the process of disciple making was to
teach the disciples the followers of Jesus to obey everything
I have commanded
you to do. It is the pain staking life changing, life long process of being a
disciple and learning to live that life out. It’s interesting that commentators
see Matthew’s gospel with its five sections of Jesus teaching being like a
discipleship manual, each section teaching us how to live and be a follower of
Jesus. We have Paul’s and other Apostles helpful letters to early Churches as
they struggled and wrestled with how to be a new community following Jesus
together. In the reading in Acts we had this morning we see that process at
work as the new church committed themselves to prayer, the apostles teaching,
fellowship and the breaking of the bread and how as a community they lived
Christ’s kingdom out with hospitality, generosity, compassion and in their
midst God was at work bringing healing and wholeness and people coming to
recognise Jesus as Lord and saviour… It is snap shot for us of being disciples
together, of being disciple makers together. It wasn’t perfect by any means,
they had issues with diversity of cultures, they seemed happy to be inward
looking and needed persecution to push them out of Jerusalem to be about the
commission they had been given of all nations… even though Jerusalem was kind
of like Auckland and a cosmopolitan centre, you just have to read through the
list of nations that heard people speaking in their own language when the
disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit.
We are celebrating an adult baptism today and a
reaffirmation of baptism by immersion… someone wanting to affirm that while
they were baptised as a child they have come to a fresh and new understanding
of being a follower of Jesus and want to commit themselves to following Jesus
for the rest of their lives. As the church has grown from generation to generation,
they have seen baptism as a way of acknowledging their children as part of the
community as well. In Acts chapter 2 Peter says this promise is for you and for
your children and your children’s children… In Acts when the Philippian jailer
is baptised it says his whole household was as well, which meant children as
well. It ties in with the covenant in the Old Testament where Jewish children
were circumcised as a sign that they belong to God’s people. When we baptise
infants, as believing parents we make a commitment to do the second part of
that disciple making process to teach them to obey everything that Jesus has
commanded us. You as Christian parents engaged in being the primary teachers of
that faith. A lot of people come to have their children ‘done’ like baptism was
a naming ceremony, they say they are doing it because they want their children
to have the choice to believe or not when they grow older. But I have to remind
them that they are making that decision for their children, That they are
responsible for bringing their children up with the benefit of a Christian home
and the church.
Now for Kris and I, did not baptise our children, we wanted them
to come to a point when they would own their own faith in Jesus Christ, that
faith that we have taught them and at that stage they would come and be
baptised. So I’m going to get all
emotional a bit later on. Because Beth has come to that point…
The gospel and commission finishes, the way the gospel began
with the affirmation of Jesus as Immanuel… God with us… Jesus says and Lo I am
with you till the end of the age…. The Christian life the kingdom of heaven is
lived out in relationship with the risen Christ, It is lived out in Christ,
through Christ and with Christ. WE are called to be a disciple of Christ, we
are baptised into Christ, we love Christ by obeying what he told us to do… If
you love me you will keep my commands. It is the presence and power of Christ
with us by the Holy Spirit that makes this life and commission possible.
I want to finish by saying I believe that Jesus commission
is at the centre of our churches mission statement… That we are called to be an
authentic, vibrant, sustainable community, growing as followers of Jesus,
(being disciples) and inspiring others to join us on that journey…(making
disciples)’ It’s our call our purpose. I might be moving on, called to serve in
another Church, but there is that connection with St Peter’s to the
resurrection and the commission of Jesus, he is alive and he is Lord and he
commissions us to go and make disciples… I hope that today is a teaser scene
for the future of the church here… the
first of many adult baptisms as well as infant baptisms that will mark, the
church growing and responding to Christ’s call on us all to Go make
disciples.
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