Opening Prayer
Lord, teach us to know Your power and glory. Amen.
Text: Matthew 28:18–20
Then Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Devotion
Christ is almighty God from eternity, but here He speaks about His power as our High Priest, Prophet, and King. He has gotten salvation for the whole world and has redeemed them by His death. Then the Father seated Him at His right hand and “gave Him dominion and glory and a kingdom” (Dan 7:14). So everything is at His disposal to command in His works, with Word and Sacraments to extend His Church, all angels and spirits in heaven, and all people and powers on earth. This we shall bear in mind to strengthen our faith. Have we really pondered this glorious truth: “All authority is given to Me in heaven and on earth”? “All authority” and all wisdom and love and righteousness stand in service to Christendom. What shall harm it then? He who rules over everything precisely for the advancement of the Church is with His people always, unceasingly, every hour, until the end of the world. Therefore He has commanded His disciples to go forth and conquer the whole world for Him. 1) They are to make all people His disciples, Christianize all nations. A royal command, and behold, it is done! This command of the Lord contains all the mission duty of the Church. Satan has continually raged against it: through persecution, through secularizing the church, and through all kinds of sects that fight against Christianizing “the nations.” All in vain! Christ said: “Go and make disciples of all nations,” and no one can overturn it. 2) “Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you.” He commands in the name of the whole Holy Trinity, over all God’s power and revelation in word and deed. To be baptized in the name of the Father is to be united with Jesus’ Father as His child. To be baptized in the name of the Son is to be taken into His kingdom and to receive a part in His redeeming work. To be baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit is to receive the Holy Spirit in the heart and to become His dwelling place. – “Baptize them” and “teach them.” These two things spread Christ’s kingdom. “Teach them to observe everything, whatever I have commanded you.” Haven’t the Apostles done this? We can be perfectly certain that they have communicated to the Church “all doctrine and all knowledge,” and when we teach what they have taught, we dare boldly proclaim it as the full and complete doctrine of Jesus Christ. But we must never forget to observe all these things! Among the Christianized “nations” there are few true disciples. The wheat is there, but the tares are most numerous. “Christ has many confessors, but few followers.” Let this grieve us, and let us fulfill Christ’s command, by taking our mutual sins upon us, repenting of them as He commands, and, like Paul, Daniel, Nehemiah, Moses, and all the saints, consider ourselves one with our people.
Our text shows clearly that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three Persons, but one God, just as the Church teaches. God has revealed Himself as the Triune God, because He is Triune God. And faith must hold Him to be such. We cannot dispense with the Father; what then would become of our adoption as children and our inheritance and our praying “Our Father”? We cannot dispense with the Son, our Savior and Lord and our only way to the Father. But just as little can we dispense with the Spirit, for who then shall lead our hearts to Jesus and teach us to cry:
Closing Prayer
“Abba, Father”? Blessed be the Triune God, the God of our salvation, the God of our strength and our song! Amen.
Hymn
Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest,
Vouchsafe within our souls to rest;
Come with Thy grace and heavenly aid,
And fill the hearts which Thou hast made.
Make Thou to us the Father known;
Teach us th’ eternal Son to own,
And Thee, whose name we ever bless,
Of both the Spirit to confess.
Praise we the Father and the Son
And Holy Spirit, Three in One,
And may the Son on us bestow
The gifts that from the Spirit flow.
Rhabanus Maurus: L 209:1.6.7 ELH 10:1.6.7 tr. E. Caswall;
tune: Komm, Gott Schöpfer