July 31, 2024
Go and Make Disciples -- Part 3
Matthew 28:18-20
07/31/2024
18 And Jesus came and said to them, ``All authority
in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 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,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded
you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end
of the age.'' (ESV)
Reverend Mark Moss of the Lutheran Heritage Foundation will
be at Trinity on Sunday, August 4, speaking of the mission of the
Church and the need to translate various books into other
languages as the Church fulfills the Great Commission.
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.''
While the Church is going, sent by the authority of Jesus
Christ, what are they to accomplish? They are to make disciples,
they are to bring sinners into the Church to receive the comfort
of the forgiveness of sins earned by Jesus on the cross. The
Holy Spirit works through the proclaimed Word of God joined with
the water of baptism to create the faith which accepts God's
promise of heaven. Saint Peter wrote, ``Baptism now saves
you,''[2] We are buried with Christ Jesus through baptism, and
rise with Christ Jesus through baptism, and our sins are washed
away through baptism, and we are marked as God's own child
through baptism. Baptism is God's work to join sinners to
Himself, to make them holy, and to give them the gift of eternal
life.
May our Lord, who instituted baptism as the means of making
disciples, give us the faith to accept the full blessings of His
love. Amen.
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2. 1 Peter 3:21