Name and Authority (Matthew 28)
Matthew 28: 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.”
When you meet somebody for the first time and they would like to get to know you a little more, they likely will ask you these two questions:
1.) What is your name?
2.) What do you do?
Holy Trinity Sunday is a wonderful opportunity to be re-introduced to God and every day is always a wonderful opportunity to get to know God a little more.
So, God tells us His name. And God tells us a little more about what He does.
His name is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Father is God.
The Son is God.
The Holy Spirit is God.
Yet, there are not three god’s, but one God, and three persons.
And what does He do? He does a little bit of everything. Or maybe a lot a bit of everything. Or maybe just everything.
Jesus does after all say, all authority in heaven and on earth.
For millenia, Christians have confessed what God does in this way:
God creates, redeems and sanctifies. This is entire work of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
But as Christians meditate on the persons of the Trinity, they especially consider that:
The Father created me and still preserves me.
The Son redeemed and saved me.
And the Holy Spirit made me, a rather unholy person, holy! And He joins me to many other once unholy, now holy people in the holy Christian Church and gives us holy things to keep and make us holy people.
The communion of saints is the communion of holy people and holy things – like holy Words, and Holy Baptism, and Holy Body and Holy Blood.
Holy Trinity Sunday is a good day to be re-introduced to who we are, too.
And we find out that God reveals primarily not in what we do, but in what is done to us.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus. I am under Him. I am who He says I am.
Scripture tells the story of man who met Jesus and he knew Jesus had authority, for that man, too had authority.
He says, I say to one, “Come,” and he comes.
And “Go,” and he goes.
And “Do this,” and he does it.
To be under Christ’s authority means to come and go where He says to come and go, and when He says “do this,” we should do that.
To under His authority means I am who He says I am.
I am not what the world says I am.
I am not what my sin says I am.
I am not what my sickness says I am.
I am not what my anger or impatience or lust or doubts or fears say I am.
I am not under their authority, order, or power, but Christ’s.
I am who He says I am.
I am created and preserved. God made me and all creatures and still takes care of me
I am redeemed and saved. Christ purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and the from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His Holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, so that I me His Own.
I am being made holy, brought back into communion with God who is love.
He who was high and lifted up, completely set apart from,
Holy, holy, holy,
Has come down to unclean me and atoned for me, taken away my guilty, and brought into God’s rule of love. I am in the family. I am united with Christ. He is close, not set apart.
We sing that song, “holy, holy, holy,” when the God who was set apart comes down and gives us the body and blood of Jesus.
5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
When you meet someone, they likely want to know what your name is and what you do.
Tell them,
I bear the name of God.
I am His work and I trust in His work. I rest in His work.
The call for the baptized is to confess and believe and live under and rest in the name of God
You do not trust in your own name.
You do not trust in your own work.
You too often try and make a name for yourself and it hurts others and it hurts you.
You too often try and live under your own authority and your own order and it is a disaster.
Your name is not enough.
You do not have enough power.
And your work is not only not enough, your works are too often selfish and hurtful and unclean.
On your own, you are unclean and you dwell in the midst of us all who are unclean.
That is not a statement of mere inconvenience between you and your creator, but a statement of “woe,” of guilt, condemnation, deserved separation.
As we gather here, we pray and confess and believe in the name of God, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
And then we say, me, my name, my works have failed.
I’ve hurt others.
I’ve sinned against God.
But that’s not my identity. My identity is not in my name or work, but in God’s name and work.
In Jesus name and work of my salvation on the cross.
Where God’s name and work are, there is a name and work that is good and will last forever.
And do you know where God wanted His name?
He wanted it on you.
Those are the final words of Jesus in Matthew.
After Jesus had completed work of removing your punishment and uniting you back to God, the fullness of time had come to put His name on you,
for you to be baptized.
When you meet someone, they likely want to know what your name is and what you do.
They might also ask you, where you are from and who your family is.
Baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son and of Holy Spirit, tells you everything you need to do –
Who you are,
What you are to do, observe all things Jesus has commanded.
He tells in that you where you are from and also where you are going and that He is with you always until you get there.
And He tells you in that who your family is and how big it is, too. Angels, archangels, all the company of heaven, and all the church scattered throughout the world.
Isaiah has us singing with the angels that the holy, holy, holy Lord is God is Sabbaoth.
That’s a military term.
He is commander of the most power army of angels that you can imagine.
We’re obsessed with super-hero movies and yet the most powerful super-hero we can imagine would pale in comparison to some of the things angels can do.
So imagine that this most powerful army is not against you, but they are from God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit- and God is not against you, He is for you, and thus, so are they.
All authority in heaven and on earth…I am with you always.
No matter where…heaven and earth
and no matter when…always
you have God,
and God, more importantly, has you under Him and in Him and with Him.