Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Book: Matthew

What is the mission of Church?

About this sermon

After his resurrection Jesus met his disciples on a mountain in Galilee and gave his church its mission: all authority is his, so go and make disciples of all nations. Disciples are made through the means he appointed, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe all he commanded, the ministry of word and sacrament. Christ gives this commission as mediator of a better covenant, and he promises to be with his church always, to the end of the age.

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Sermon transcript

Please remain standing for the reading of God’s word. I know I read this earlier in the service, but I’m going to read it again. It is my sermon text for today from the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 28, verses 16 through 20. You can follow along if you’d like to read along with that on page 993 in your Pew Bibles. Dear friends, this is the word of God. Hear it with reverence and awe. 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. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for God’s blessing upon the preaching of his word. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you that you have revealed yourself to us. You are not a distant or uninvolved deity, but you are a God who has revealed yourself in your mighty works in history and through your word, and supremely in the Lord Jesus Christ, the living word, who is revealed to us in the written word. We would ask Heavenly Father that you would this day open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word, and we would ask that your Holy Spirit would illuminate us and apply these truths to our hearts.

May the seed of your word take deep root in our hearts, and may much spiritual fruit be born through the implanting of your word in our souls. Grant unto me your unworthy servant the grace to declare and speak forth your word with clarity and power by your spirit. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon this morning is What is the Mission of the Church? And if you’re following along in your sermon outline, and there are sermon outlines in the foyer in the back, I’d encourage the children to listen in for a number of these key words. Words such as mission, disciple, covenant, means, word, sacrament, presence, faith, and obedience. Well my dear friends, once again, what is the mission of the church?

Well, there actually seems to be quite a lot of difference of opinion and even confusion among professing Christians today on how to answer that question. And just to give you an example, it seems that some folks think that the church’s central mission is to promote morality and to preserve the moral order of society. Now friends, I do not doubt that when the church is at its best it does make and it has made a moral impact upon the broader culture and society. But is that really the central mission of Christ’s church? Others seem to think that the church’s primary mission is to promote so-called social justice or to be an institution devoted to bringing about political and social change in our society and in the nation. Still others seem to view the church as a social club with social fellowship and community building being its main mission.

Or perhaps as a religious program or entertainment center, tasked with the therapeutic mission of helping people to live their lives to the fullest or to find greater personal happiness and self-fulfillment. Or perhaps just to have fun in the name of Jesus. Dear ones, in the attempt to discover or to clarify the church’s mission, it seems that many church leaders today following the strategies that are recommended by professional church growth experts will turn to things such as demographic surveys of their target communities or to the felt needs of local religious consumers or perhaps to the priorities and desires of those whom they desire to reach. They look to such things in order to shape their vision and understanding of the church’s mission and to make strategies for how to carry out that mission. And just to give you an illustration of this, it’s my understanding that the once famous megachurch pastor, Pastor Bill Hybels, some of you may be familiar with Pastor Hybels, it’s my understanding that several decades ago he began his huge Willow Creek community church empire by basically doing door-to-door surveys among the folks in his community.

And he would knock on doors and if folks were willing to talk to him, if he would ask them, you know, do you go to church? If they say, yeah, we go to church at such and such a place, then he would say thank you for your time. But if he happened to come across a home where the folks did not go to church or whether or perhaps had left the church, he would ask them, well, could you tell me what turned you off about the church or what would it take to bring you out to church? And he used the information that he gleaned from those surveys to design the mission and strategy of Willow Creek Church. And from a marketing perspective, that marketing approach to the church ended up being a smashing success at least in terms of attendance.

I mean, it’s a huge campus that they have there. But dear ones, and again, it’s certainly nothing wrong with trying to get to know your neighbors and get to know where they’re at in their spiritual journey, but dear ones, may I suggest to you that instead of consulting demographic surveys, instead of looking to the so-called felt needs or priorities of the unchurched or the under-churched, instead of consulting contemporary cultural trends in order to discover the mission of the church, may I suggest to you, brothers and sisters, that we as the church should first and foremost consult the greatest expert of all on the subject of the church’s mission, namely the master himself, our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. After all, believe it or not, Jesus does have something to say about the mission of his church.

The mission of the church is defined by the one who is himself the divine king and head and founder of the church. Well, in our passage for this Lord’s Day morning, a passage which has come to be known as the so-called great commission, our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ gives us and gives all who are willing to hear him a clear understanding of the mission of his church. Now, let’s consider this passage in its context. Obviously, this is the closing section of the Gospel of Matthew, and in the context of this passage, we see that Jesus has risen from the dead, the tomb is empty, Christ has been raised from the dead, and yet Christ has not yet ascended into heaven. So the context here is post-resurrection, but pre-ascension, after Christ’s resurrection, but before his ascension.

Look at verse 16. It says, now the 11 disciples, you may scratch your head and say, wait a minute, weren’t there 12? Well, yes, there were 12. One of them was Judas Iscariot, and after betraying Christ and being struck with a guilty conscience, sadly he went and he hung himself. So that’s why the 11 disciples are mentioned here. The 11 disciples went to Galilee, the region of Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. There’s actually some significance to the mountain reference here that I’ll get back to later, but here the 11 disciples, after Jesus rose from the dead, they go to meet him to a particular unnamed mountain or elevated region in Galilee. Verse 17, Verse 16, why do they go to Galilee? Why don’t they stick around Jerusalem? Well, they go to Galilee because the angel at our Lord’s empty tomb had told the women to instruct the disciples to meet Jesus in Galilee.

Look back at verse 7 of chapter 28. It says, then go quickly, here’s the angel speaking to the women at the tomb, then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead and behold, that means pay attention, behold, he is going before you to Galilee, there you will see him. See, I have told you. That’s why in verse 16 we read of the 11 disciples encountering the resurrected Jesus in Galilee. And then in verse 17, it says, when they saw him, how did they react? When they saw their risen Lord standing before them, how do these 11 disciples react? Well, they react with worship. It says they worshiped him, but then Matthew adds an interesting kind of passing comment here. He says, but some doubted. Some of these 11 disciples, these apostles that Christ had appointed, doubted, even encountering the resurrected Lord Jesus, even some of them had doubts enter their mind.

Perhaps they doubted at first because they weren’t close enough to see him clearly, or perhaps this refers to the kind of natural doubt that arises when you see something that you are totally not expecting to see. Have you ever had a situation like that where you encounter or you witness something that is totally shocking, totally surprising, something you completely did not expect to see, and you kind of rub your eyes and say, I can’t believe I’m seeing this. Well, perhaps that’s the kind of doubt that these few disciples experienced at this time. But in any case, what I find significant about this, my friends, is that this detail helps to support our confidence in the historical trustworthiness of this gospel account. After all, think about it. If Matthew’s gospel was merely a work of pure religious propaganda with no interest in reporting accurate historical facts, then Matthew would certainly not have included this detail about some of Jesus’s disciples doubting even when face to face with their resurrected Lord.

But in any case, we learn that they encounter Jesus, they see him in his resurrected body, and they worship him, though some have doubted. And then what does Jesus say to them? Look at verse 18. It says, and Jesus came and said to them, all authority. Let me just pause there. How much authority? All authority. All authority where? All authority where? In heaven and on earth, which is kind of a biblical way of saying, all authority in the entire universe has been given to me. What an audacious claim that all authority has been given to our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. All authority has been given to him in the entire universe of all of the multiple galaxies and stars throughout this vast, unimaginably vast universe. Jesus says, I have authority over all of it. You see, my friends, in his post-resurrection state, there are no longer any limitations upon our Lord’s exercise of his universal divine authority.

Though Jesus as the divine Son of God is indeed equal with the Father with respect to his deity, yet as the God-Man, as the eternal Son of God, who took upon himself a human nature in the person of Jesus, as the God-Man, Jesus in a sense submitted to his Father. He is equal with his Father with respect to his deity, yet as the God-Man, he submits to the Father, and in a sense, he is therefore given his authority as the God-Man by God his Father. So he claims universal divine authority over heaven and earth, and that is the authority that backs up the commission that he is about to give to his disciples. That brings us to the main points I want us to consider for today. Let’s look at verse 19. Jesus says, go therefore, therefore meaning in light of my universal divine authority, I’m calling you to do this, go therefore and do what?

Make disciples, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, teaching them, and so forth. We learn here brothers and sisters from this passage that the central mission of the church is to make disciples of all people groups. What is the church’s mission in this world with respect to those outside the church especially? The mission is to proclaim the gospel in order to make disciples for Jesus. Dr. William Hendrickson points out that literally the original says having gone therefore make disciples. The imperative here is to make disciples, and that is the central focus of the mission that the risen Lord Jesus Christ assigns to his church. The other participles in this passage, the going, the baptizing, the teaching describe different aspects in the process of disciple making. But that raises the question, what is a disciple?

If the church’s mission is to make disciples, well what’s a disciple? Well children, you know what a disciple is? A disciple is basically a student. I know some of you are students, you’re on summer break, but you’re students. And there is a real sense in which when little JP was baptized today, he was enrolled as a disciple, as a student, a pupil in the school of Christ. So a disciple is a learner, a pupil, a student, and we are called as followers of Jesus to learn from him. Not just so we can stuff our heads full of knowledge, but so that we can live for him. Disciples are those who seek to learn from Jesus in order that they might live for Jesus by the grace of God. And that is the central mission and purpose of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are many subsidiary purposes and secondary purposes that are attached to and connected to that, but disciples are to be made. And among whom are disciples to be made? Jesus says go therefore and make disciples of whom? Of the Jews? Of Americans? Of Europeans? No. Go and make disciples of ta ethne in the Greek. All nations. That word in the Greek ethne I believe is the word from which we derive our word ethnic or ethnicity. And so Jesus is not thinking primarily in political categories. He’s not thinking of political nations as such. He’s thinking of ethnic groups, people groups. In other words, Gentiles as well as Jews. And this is very significant, especially in Matthew’s gospel that Matthew would record this. After all, if you’ve studied Matthew’s gospel, especially in connection and relationship to the other gospel accounts, Matthew’s gospel is arguably the most Jewish of all the gospels.

It appears that Matthew wrote his gospel with a Jewish audience in mind. A Jewish Christian audience in mind. Because Matthew spends a great deal of time and space within his gospel showing how Jesus is the promised Messiah. How Jesus fulfills Old Testament messianic prophecy. But not only does Matthew present the Lord Jesus as the one who fulfills specific Old Testament messianic prophecies. There certainly is plenty of that in Matthew’s gospel. But deeper than that, Matthew’s gospel shows us how Jesus Christ fulfills the story of Israel. The Old Testament ends with a cliffhanger anticipating a time when the Messiah would come. Jesus Christ fulfills that. He is the ultimate conclusion to that story of Israel. That historical revelation of God given to Israel and through Israel. And this, my friends, is in fulfillment to the entire focus of Scripture.

Gentiles as well as Jews were to be discipled in fulfillment of God’s covenant promises given all the way back in the days of Abraham. Just very briefly, look with me if you would at Genesis chapter 12 verse 3. Where God calls the patriarch Abraham, who later is known as Abraham. He calls Abraham to go to a place where the Lord would lead him. And notice this covenant promise that God makes to Abraham at Abraham’s call. In Genesis 12 verse 3, God says to Abraham, I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse and in you, catch this, in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. The ultimate goal of the Abrahamic covenant was not just the nation of Israel. The ultimate goal of God’s covenant with Abraham was to bless all of the families of the earth.

All of the nations of humanity through the gospel. And then if you turn to Genesis 17 verse 5, where God again reaffirms his covenant promise to Abraham and gives Abraham the covenant of circumcision. It says this, it says no longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, father of a multitude in other words. For I have made you the father of what? The Jewish nation? No, I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. Not just the Jews but Gentiles as well were to be brought into the covenant mercies of God in the new covenant messianic age. My friends with the resurrection of Christ and his ascension into heaven to reign at the right hand of God the father, God’s covenant promise to Abraham that all nations would be blessed in him would begin to be fulfilled in earnest.

You see the narrowing of God’s saving grace and covenant mercies in Old Testament times when grace was mostly limited to the physical descendants of Abraham the Jews. That temporary narrowing of God’s covenant mercies was ultimately to be in service to the eventual expansion of the covenant to all the nations with the coming of Jesus the Messiah and with the call to the church to take the gospel to all the nations. And that’s what Jesus has in mind as he calls his church by speaking these words of command to his disciples as apostles who served to represent the church. He says go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. The gospel of Jesus is for the nations of humanity it’s not just for a particular ethnic group or people group it’s for all peoples who would come by grace to believe in him.

No longer was the Savior’s mission to be limited to the lost sheep of the house of Israel as it had been during our Lord’s earthly ministry. Remember Jesus at one point in the gospels he says I was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. During his time with us on earth the Lord Jesus focused most of his attention in ministry to ministering to his fellow Jews. There was an occasional Gentile who came into contact with Jesus and whom Jesus would heal and instruct and so forth but the bulk of his earthly ministry was focused on the lost sheep of the house of Israel but now with his resurrection now with his resurrection the Gentiles too were to hear the glad tidings of great joy the good news of salvation through Christ. And that is basically the significance of that very familiar well-known Bible verse which summarizes the gospel so well.

John 316 what does that passage say I know some of you could recite it from memory for God so loved whom the world God so loved the Jews no the world in other words Jews and Gentiles God so loved the world that he did something what did he do he gave his one and only son that what that whoever believes in him not just so that the Jews who believe in him but whoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life. This is what the church is to be about proclaiming that good news and gaining not only converts but making disciples who not only believe that gospel but seek to live out the implications of that gospel in their lives. So the central mission of the church is to make disciples of all people groups Jew and Gentile alike but how does the church do that how is the church to go about doing that we learn next of the appointed means for carrying out the mission of making disciples and those appointed means are word and sacrament ministry the appointed means for carrying out the mission of the church of making disciples is word and sacrament ministry Jesus says this go therefore and do what make disciples of all nations how 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.

Disciples are made by means of two basic things first of all baptism and secondly teaching you might say well what about the Lord’s Supper well the Lord’s Supper had already been instituted by our Lord on the night when he was betrayed so that’s why Jesus doesn’t mention the Lord’s Supper it’s clear from the rest of the New Testament that the church continued to observe and celebrate the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper but here as Jesus is about to ascend back to his father he gives the commission to baptize. Baptism as we saw earlier in the service is the covenant sign of initiation into the covenant of grace. Trinitarian baptism is a sign and a seal of being brought under the authority and the gracious Lordship of the triune God Father Son and Holy Spirit. And so we have the preaching and teaching of God’s word and the administration of the sacraments these are the basic means by which the church is to carry out its mission and many folks today upon hearing that would scratch their heads and say that’s kind of boring that’s kind of ordinary I mean where’s the flashiness where’s the kind of the Steven Spielberg effects in some churches you go to today you’ll see not just the word in the sacrament ministry but you’ll see basically a rock band stage lighting a fog machine as if the Holy Spirit needs those kinds of things and again I’m not here to critique different worship styles but to focus on the fact that you know we can trust God to bless the means that he has appointed friends yes the ministry of word and sacrament these are rather simple ordinary things however under God’s blessing they are sufficient to bring us to faith and to nurture disciples in that faith when blessed by the Holy Spirit God’s word and God’s covenant signs the sacraments are enough to feed to nourish and to nurture Christ’s disciples and so we have word and sacrament ministry that’s what he calls his apostles and thus his church too and this is how we are to go about the business of making disciples but that raises the question what is it that the church is to teach in the name of Jesus well Jesus makes that clear in verse 20 he says teaching them to observe what all that I have commanded you here our Lord speaks I believe as the new and final Moses that seems to be a common theme here in Matthew’s gospel and again as I mentioned earlier Matthew’s is arguably the most Jewish of the gospels it’s written with a Jewish Christian audience in mind you see just as the first Moses received the law of God on Mount Sinai and conveyed and mediated that law to the covenant people of Israel so here our Lord Jesus Christ issues forth his great commission commands his apostles to teach all that he has commanded where does he give this instruction from he gives this instruction from this mountain this undesignated mountain in Galilee I don’t believe that that is just merely a sort of a secondary detail I believe Matthew here is is pointing this out this mountain has redemptive historical significance the eleven disciples were instructed to meet the Lord Jesus in Galilee where he did much of his earthly ministry and to meet on this unnamed mountain and it is from this mountain that Jesus gives the commission to his church and he does so as the mediator of a new and better covenant Moses was the mediator of the old covenant but Jesus as we learn in the book of Hebrews is the mediator of a new and better covenant because a covenant that is built on better promises my friends the church is to teach the people of Israel to teach disciples of Jesus all that he has commanded it is to teach both law and gospel it is to teach what God requires of us that’s his law and also what God has done for our salvation through Christ that’s the good news the gospel and the goal of discipleship is not just making converts for Christ but the practical obedience that springs forth from faith in Christ in summary my friends the mission of Christ church is to make disciples of Jesus who in the words of that that wonderful him will trust and obey dear listener by God’s amazing grace do you trust Jesus for your salvation and having trusted him for your salvation do you seek to show your gratitude for the gift of salvation you have received by seeking to live in grateful obedience to him the Lord Jesus commands all people everywhere to repent through his gospel Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin he rose from the dead so that whoever believes in him might not perish but have life everlasting and as the word of God says believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved so trust in Jesus come to him today his arms are open wide to all who would come to him embrace him receive him rest upon him alone for your salvation and then by the grace of God having received his gift of forgiveness and eternal life show your gratitude by seeking to walk after a new obedience so the church is called to make disciples of all people groups and the appointed means for doing so is the ordinary means of the word in sacrament ministry of the church but this is a tall order isn’t it Jesus says make disciples of all nations that’s a tall order how can we as the church with our limitations and our sin and our imperfections how can we possibly carry out this divine commission well that leads to my final point based on verse 20 let us consider finally the power to carry out the church’s mission that power is the abiding presence of Christ the power to carry out the church’s mission is the abiding presence of Christ Jesus says and behold children what does behold mean it means pay attention this is important behold I am what with you always but with you always now some might say well wait a minute Jesus is about to ascend into heaven he’s about to depart from his disciples so how can he say I will be with you always even to the end of the age well Jesus is with us by the Holy Spirit you see after Pentecost Christ is personally present with his church by means of the Holy Spirit you know at the beginning of this gospel account Matthew explains that the virgin birth and incarnation of Christ means that Jesus is Immanuel which means as Matthew 1 23 tells us God with us the Old Testament temple symbolized God’s gracious covenantal royal presence dwelling in the midst of his people but Jesus is the living temple he is the word made flesh the living divine word who became flesh and tabernacle made his dwelling in our midst but when Jesus with respect to his physical presence ascended into heaven that doesn’t mean that he left the church alone no he poured out his Holy Spirit upon the church and he abides with his church by his spirit throughout this age of course again as I mentioned this is all made possible by the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and friends this promise here should comfort us it should encourage us it should bless us it should strengthen us as we seek as the church today to be faithful to our commission you know sometimes you hear people say well what would your church do if Jesus was there what if Jesus showed up to church and I’m here to tell you brothers and sisters Jesus shows up to this church every week he shows up wherever his people are gathered in his name because he is present by the Holy Spirit and he promises to be with us always to the end of the age dear ones let us look to the Lord Jesus Christ and his abiding presence with us as we seek to be faithful to the mission to which our Savior has called us so let us by the grace of God go and make disciples baptizing and teaching them and resting in the continued presence the abiding presence of our Savior by his spirit to accomplish this task amen let us pray Heavenly Father we thank and praise and bless you Lord for your grace and your goodness to us in Christ we would pray Heavenly Father that you would help us to take these truths to heart and put them into practice in our lives give us the grace Lord to trust and obey and we thank you once again for Jesus our wonderful resurrected ascended reigning Lord and Savior may we be faithful unto him and may he be present with us as he is promised to be even to the end of the age in Jesus name we pray in all of God’s people said amen dear friends let’s close our time of worship today by singing number 404 the church’s one foundation 404

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June 30, 2024
Foundations of Faith: He Descended into Hell

About this sermon

1. The parallel between the prophet Jonah in the belly of the great fish, and the Lord Jesus Christ in the state of death (v. 40).
2. Christ’s burial and continuation in the state of death for a time anticipated His resurrection (v 40).
3. Our Lord’s resurrection from the state of death ought to lead sinners to repentance (vv. 41-42).

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Sermon transcript

Congregation, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. As we continue our Foundations of Faith series, this morning we consider a passage from Matthew’s Gospel. My focus will especially be on Matthew 12 verse 40, but I’m going to read, but we’ll focus as well on the broader section, Matthew 12, 38 to 42, but let me begin reading at verse 33. So Matthew chapter 12, beginning at verse 33 and reading through verse 42. Dear friends, let us hear with reverence and awe the Word of our God. The Lord Jesus says this, Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you speak good when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him saying, Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you. But he answered them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the Prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it.

For they repent at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. Your friends, the grass-withers, the flower-fades, that the word of our God endures forever. Let’s seek the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of His Word. Our Lord and Father in heaven, sovereign and eternal God, we thank you that you have spoken to us, that you have given to us a trustworthy divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures. We thank you for your God-breathed, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. It is indeed a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. We ask that by your spirit, you would open our minds and hearts to understand this portion of your Word and its relevance to us today.

We would ask that you would be gracious unto me, your unworthy servant, that I might speak forth only that which is faithful in your sight in accordance with your Word. So set a guard over my lips, Lord God, and set a guard over our hearts that we might receive your Word in truth and faith. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon this morning is Foundations of Faith. He descended into hell. And if you have your sermon outlined, there are a number of keywords that the children can be listening for in my sermon today. Well, dear ones, as we return to our Foundations of Faith series, a series which is being guided by that Bible-based creed of the church known as the Apostles Creed, we come this morning to an affirmation in the creed that has been disputed by many, rejected by some, and interpreted in a number of different ways throughout church history.

Namely, the affirmation found in the second cradle, the second section, the second I believe section of the Apostles Creed. This affirmation that we’re considering today is that our Lord Jesus Christ descended into hell. This affirmation that our Lord descended into hell comes right after the affirmation in the creed that says that Christ was crucified, dead, and buried. And so in the structure of the Apostles Creed, it would seem that this affirmation that he descended into hell envisions something that happened to Christ after his death. Now, it’s been pointed out that the English term hell is sometimes used in certain English translations of the Bible, not only to refer specifically to the place of eternal punishment for the unrepentant wicked, though the Bible does indeed teach that there is such a place of punishment, and it is rightly described by the word hell.

But friends, sometimes in certain English translations, the English word hell is also used to refer more generically to the state or abode of the dead, whether those dead, those departed souls be the souls of the wicked or the souls of the redeemed. For example, the English word for hell is sometimes used to translate the Hebrew word shayol. And shayol is the Hebrew word for the abode of the dead, and doesn’t necessarily speak to whether those dead are the wicked dead or the redeemed dead. Now friends, at this point, let me reassure you about something. Let me reassure you that it’s not my intention this morning to bore you with a lengthy lecture on the various ways that this affirmation that he descended into hell has been understood throughout church history. But I do want to mention briefly three major interpretations that have been held in church history about this affirmation of the creed.

One very popular and very common view held by influential theologians such as St. Thomas Aquinas could be labeled as the nether world view. The great reformer John Calvin describes this view in his institutes in the following words. Calvin writes that according to this view, quote, Christ descended to the souls of the patriarchs who had died under the law to announce redemption as accomplished and to free them from the prison they were where they were confined. Now this view seeks to address that mysterious question of well what happened to the souls of Old Testament saints? What happened to the souls of true believers who lived before the coming of Christ? Did they go to paradise? Did they were they kind of in a state of limbo? And this nether world view is the idea that they went to this kind of shadowy existence, this kind of limbo awaiting the announcement of the coming of the Messiah and his accomplishment of redemption.

So according to this view, after Christ died he went and announced to the souls of the redeemed in Shae’ol that that indeed he had accomplished their redemption and he released their souls to go with him into paradise. Another major view is that the phrase he descended into hell is to be understood as a confession of the truth that our Lord Jesus Christ suffered the penalty of hell on the cross of Calvary as he bore the father’s wrath against our sins. So we might call this the hell on the cross view. This was the view held by John Calvin himself and this understanding is also reflected in the great reformed catechism, the Heidelberg catechism and it’s answered a question 44. And friends certainly the word of God does indeed teach that our Lord Jesus Christ took upon himself the hellish wrath and curse of God when he died on the cross as our sin bearer, our substitute as he paid the penalty for our sins.

However, another way to understand this phrase that he descended into hell is what we might call the state of the dead view. This is the view reflected in our own Westminster larger catechism in answer to question number 50. If you’d like to refer to that, it’s found in the back of your sultar hymnal on page 945 in the back of your sultar hymnal, the larger catechism. The question is this, wherein consisted Christ’s humiliation after his death. Again, that question has in view our Lord’s estate of humiliation and that that estate of humiliation continued after his death. Where in consisted Christ’s humiliation after his death? The Bible based answer to that question is this, Christ’s humiliation after his death consisted in his being buried and continuing in the state of the dead and under the power of death till the third day, which has been otherwise expressed in these words, he descended into hell.

This state of the dead view highlights our Lord’s continuing in a state of death for a time as the final stage of our Lord’s estate of humiliation, which would be followed on the third day, of course, by his glorious triumphant resurrection from the dead, the resurrection of Christ being the first stage in our Lord’s estate of exaltation. Now, the significance of this particular view, and there’s truth in all of these different approaches or understandings of the phrase he descended into hell, but this particular state of the dead view underscores the fact that our Lord’s continuing in the state of the dead for a time, was an important part of his saving work for us. And thus, Jesus remaining in an intermediate state during that time of his entombment was vital to our eternal hope, comfort, and salvation.

One of the proof texts supporting the answer to this large catechism question is verse 40 of our text for this Lord’s day morning. And so friends, it is to this passage of God’s word that I would now have us turn our attention. And as we turn our attention to Matthew chapter 12, verse 40, I want you to notice the parallel between the prophet Jonah in the belly of the great fish, on the one hand, and the Lord Jesus Christ in the state of death. This is the first point, first major point on your sermon outline. Consider friends, the parallel between the prophet Jonah in the belly of the great fish and the Lord Jesus Christ in the state of death. It says in verse 40, for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Friends, Jonah’s experience of being swallowed up by a great fish, and by the way, as an aside, the Bible never says it’s a whale. It may have been a whale, some have thought it, and well, maybe it was a whale shark, or perhaps even a great white shark. We don’t know, it doesn’t say, but it was a big fish. So Jonah’s experience of being swallowed up by a great fish and remaining in the belly of that fish four time was a type and a picture of our Lord Jesus being swallowed up in death, in being buried, and in continuing, remaining under the power of death four times, just as Jonah remained and was miraculously preserved by God in the belly of that fish for a time. You know, it’s interesting that in Jonah chapter 2 verse 2, Jonah records as part of his prayer to the Lord from the belly of the fish the following words.

Jonah chapter 2 verse 2, record Jonah as saying this, I called out to the Lord out of my distress and he answered me, out of the belly of Shaeol I cried and you heard my voice. Oh, wait a minute, he’s crying out to the Lord from the belly of this great fish, but actually as he describes it poetically in this prayer, he says out of the belly of Shaeol, Shaeol the abode of the dead I cried out to the Lord. Jonah’s experience in the the belly of the fish was a type, a picture of Shaeol the state of the dead. After all, without God’s miraculous preservation of his life in the fish and without the Lord eventually inducing the fish to vomit Jonah up onto the dry land, Jonah would have been as good as dead.

But we see the parallel there between the prophet Jonah in the belly of the great fish and the Lord Jesus Christ in the state of death. Now let’s back up just a bit and seek to understand our passage for this morning in its context. Our passage for this Lord’s day morning occurs within a larger section of Matthew’s gospel where our Lord Jesus is encountering conflict and opposition from various Jewish religious leaders and devotees of his day such as the Pharisees. And this was very common in the gospel accounts. Jesus often butted heads with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes and so forth of his day. Now earlier in this chapter Matthew had recorded our Lord’s teaching on blasphemy against the Holy Spirit as Jesus responds to the Pharisees accusation that he casts out demons by bellsable, the Prince of Demons.

In other words by Satan, bellsable was just another name for Satan rather than casting out demons by the power of the Spirit of God. If you go back to verse 24 of this chapter it says, but when the Pharisees heard it, when they heard of Jesus casting out demons showing power over the demonic realm as the conquering Messiah, it says, but when the Pharise heard it, they said, it is only by bellsable the Prince of Demons that this man casts out demons and then follows this blasphemous accusation against Jesus. Our Lord’s reply, his response to that and thus his teaching on the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. And then friends in this section immediately preceding our passage for today, a section that I also included in the scripture reading for this morning, Jesus is recorded to have given teaching on the fruit of our speech, probably still thinking of the speech that led to such blasphemy in claiming that he cast out demons by the power of bellsable.

And Jesus uses the illustration of trees and the quality of their fruit to illustrate the truth as recorded in verse 34 that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. And what Jesus seems to be implying here in this teaching is that his enemies made their blasphemous claims against him because their hearts were hardened and set in evil. This may be the reason why verse 38 tells us that the scribes and the Pharisees pressed him to perform an authenticating sign for them. I mean Jesus had already done many miracles in in front of multiple eyewitnesses. Why then do they come to him and ask for him to perform a sign? Well, it may very well be that they were quite offended by what Jesus had been saying about the evil fruit of their lips and that they wanted to try to trap him in his words.

And so that leads us to verse 38. It says then some of the scribes remember the scribes were basically the Bible scholars of that time. Some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him saying teacher that they address him with this respectful term. They at least pretend respect and civility as they approach him. They say teacher, we wish to see a sign from you. Again, while these scribes and Pharisees pretend to address Jesus respectfully by addressing him as teacher, it seems quite clear in the context here that they’re not making their request in good faith or because they are sincerely seeking the truth. Even though Jesus had performed many miraculous works in the presence of multiple eyewitnesses, as I said, it appears once again that they are seeking a miraculous sign from our Lord because they want to use that somehow to discredit him.

Dr. D. A. Carson in his commentary on Matthew points out and I quote him, he says a quote sign was usually some miraculous token to be quickly fulfilled or fulfilled quickly or at once to confirm a prophecy. The Jews were not asking for just another miracle since they had already persuaded themselves that at least some of those Jesus had performed were of demonic agency. They were asking for a quote sign performed on command to remove what seemed to them to be the ambiguity of Jesus’s miracles. In other words, they wanted to dictate to Jesus the terms by which they would accept his claims. And of course, our Lord Jesus refused. We are the clay. God is the potter. We as the clay have no right to sit in judgment over our divine potter or to say, well, you’ve got to prove yourself to me.

By my standards, no, God doesn’t do that. And of course, the Lord Jesus again, he refused their request for Jesus did not do miracles on demand. Jesus would often heal when folks would come to him with a humble request for healing. But they, these scribes and Pharisees were in essence demanding Jesus prove himself, authenticate himself according to their standards and Jesus refuses. Indeed, he rebukes them as an evil and adulterous generation. As it says in verse 39, Jesus responds to their pretended request in verse 38 by saying, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to you except the sign of the prophet Jonah. And that will segue into our main text for today, verse 40. And by the way, when Jesus calls them an adulterous generation, it’s interesting if you’re familiar with the Old Testament prophets, oftentimes in the Old Testament prophetic books, when God through the prophet is rebuking the unfaithfulness and apostasy and covenant breaking of his people, he will often describe that unfaithfulness and apostasy as adultery.

It’s a spiritual adultery. It is an unfaithfulness to the Lord, a covenant breaking against the Lord. And so it is in this sense that Jesus rebukes his generation as an evil and adulterous generation seeking for a sign. Jesus goes on to say in verse 40, he’s just mentioned the sign of the prophet Jonah. And Jonah himself was the sign as he came out from the fish. And I often wonder what Jonah must have looked like after having been in the fish for that time. I imagine he didn’t look or smell very good. That would have been quite a sign as he goes into Nineveh and proclaims repentance to them. Jonah himself was the sign as Jesus in his resurrected glory would likewise be a sign. And it says this in verse 40, for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man.

That’s a messianic title. Jesus’ favorite self designation. So will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Now some would say wait a minute pastor put on the breaks here. Jesus says that he would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Well wait a minute Jesus died on Friday, good Friday afternoon and then was buried by the evening in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. So he died partway through the day on Friday. He was all day in the tomb. Well he was in the tomb part of Friday, all day Saturday and part of the day on Sunday morning. So how can he say that he’s going to be in the tomb three days and three nights. But friends this is what we call idiomatic language here.

This is not to be understood in an overly literalistic way as if Jesus was saying that he was going to be in the tomb for a full literal 72 hours. You see in Jewish reckoning a part of the day was reckoned as the whole. And so this expression seems to have been as one Bible commentator puts it, a Semitic idiom and need not be supposed to contradict the resurrection on the third day. It’s an idiomatic saying that he’s going to be three days in the heart of the earth. Not necessarily a full 72 hours but by Jewish reckoning he was in the tomb for three days. Part of Friday, all day Saturday and the early part of Sunday morning prior to his resurrection from the dead. Well dear ones, the point of all of this up to this point, our Lord not only lived for us by his active obedience praise God he did that for us, marinating a righteousness which we could never merit for ourselves.

Jesus not only died for us though praise God he did. He took the wrath and curse of God upon himself on the cross as he paid the penalty for our sin. Jesus however not only lived for us and died for us and rose for us that we might be raised to newness of life in union with him. Jesus was also buried for us and Jesus continued for a time in the state of the dead for us and for our salvation. Christ continuing under the state of death Christ descending into hell in the sense of descending into the state of the dead and remaining in that state for a time gives us hope as we face the intermediate state between our death and the future resurrection from the dead. This gives us gospel hope beloved. We were united to him not only in his life and his death and resurrection.

We were united to him in his state of death. This gives us gospel hope because as and now we’re moving on to the second main point in your sermon outline. This gives us gospel hope because Christ’s burial and continuation in the state of death for a time anticipated his resurrection. Christ’s burial and continuation in the state of death for a time anticipated his resurrection. This is implied in verse 40 where Jesus says for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. But what happens after that time in the heart of the earth? We know the story up from the grave he arose victorious over sin and death and hell.

The prophet Jonah’s time in the belly of the great fish was a prelude to his safe re-emergence onto dry land. As the great fish could not hold Jonah down but instead by Yahweh’s command we’re told in Jonah 2 verse 10 the great fish vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. That was like a resurrection from the dead for Jonah metaphorically speaking. So likewise the grave could not keep our Lord Jesus in the state of death into which he had descended but in instead he burst forth from the tomb on the third day. Though our Lord had indeed descended into hell descended into the state of death for a time. As Saint Peter the Apostle had proclaimed in his Pentecost sermon in Acts chapter 2 24. Peter says God raised him up. God the Father raised him up loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

Jesus voluntarily submitted to the power of death for a time but it was not possible for the eternal divine son of God incarnate the word made flesh to remain under the power of death for he rose from the dead and his entombment during that brief time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday morning that brief time in the tomb anticipated his bursting forth in glorious day the day of his resurrection. My friends Christ’s continuance in the state of death for a time between his death and resurrection is a pledge and assurance to those of us who are united to him by faith. It’s a pledge and assurance to us that should our Lord Terry before we die should Jesus not return before we see physical death. We need not fear the intermediate state. We need not fear death for just as Christ’s body emerged from his intermediate state into resurrection victory so our bodies will be raised in incorruptible resurrection glory on that final day when our Lord Jesus returns in glory.

But this is only the case for those who by faith are united to Christ. Dear listener are you united to Christ spiritually and savingly by faith? You say well what does that mean? That means this are you trusting in Jesus who is crucified for sinners like me and you crucified for the forgiveness of our sins and raised from the dead for our justification and that whoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life. Are you trusting Christ as your Savior from sin only by the call of the word and spirit of God are you able to rest in him embrace him trust him for your salvation from sin and if you are trusting in him you can be assured that you need not for your death. If you’re not trusting in him God in the gospel calls you this day to repent to turn around from your sin to Christ and receive and rest upon him and him alone as your Lord and Savior and if you do the Bible says you will be saved.

Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. But this leads me to my final point briefly based on verses 41 and 42. Friends our Lord’s resurrection from the state of death ought to lead sinners to repentance. Our Lord’s resurrection from the state of death ought to lead sinners to repentance. Since Jesus has been talking about Jonah and the men of Nineveh that he preached to he says in verse 41 the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment meaning the judgment day with this generation and condemn it for they were pendant at the preaching of Jonah and behold that means pay attention something greater than Jonah is here. Jonah was a prophet of God but something greater than a prophet was with that generation. Earlier in the chapter at the beginning of the chapter Jesus had talked in his dispute with the Pharisees over the issue of the Sabbath.

Jesus says in chapter 12 verse 6 I tell you something greater than the temple is here. So Jesus is greater than the temple in his pre and its priesthood. Why? Because Jesus is our great high priest. Jesus is greater than the prophet Jonah because Jesus is the ultimate prophet with a capital P the messianic prophet and then verse 42 he gives another illustration using Solomon he says the queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Remember that great old covenant king Solomon king Solomon she came to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold something greater than Solomon is here. Just as Jonah’s re-emergence from the great fish led to the repentance of the Ninevites so Jesus is Emergence his resurrection from the state of death on the third day ought to lead us to Repentance, you know in their preaching of the gospel of the resurrected Christ the apostles often stressed this connection Between the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the gospel call to repentance for example Just briefly in Acts chapter 17 verses 30 and 31 As Paul is the apostle is preaching to the philosophers At Athens at the area of pagus as g as Paul is preaching The gospel to them and and calling them to repentance.

He says this in verse 30 Acts 17 30 the times of ignorance God overlooked but now he commands all people everywhere. That’s all inclusive He commands all people everywhere to repent why verse 31 because he has fixed a day on Which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed and of this he has given assurance to all by doing What by raising him from the dead? the call to repentance Naturally flows out of the historical event of our Lord’s resurrection Dear ones the Lord Jesus Christ is much greater than the Prophet Jonah or the great King Solomon Much greater than even the temple and its priesthood itself in Contrast to these Old Testament Persons and figures and types Jesus is the great Messianic prophet priest and king predicted and foreshadowed in the Old Testament scriptures in light of this Let us brothers and sisters as a church Let us press home upon the consciences of the lost the claims of Jesus Christ Christ who while he had Descended into hell descended into the state of the dead nevertheless He emerged victorious over the grave by his resurrection from the dead and let us call them to repentance and faith Reminding them that our resurrected Lord will one day be the judge of the living and the dead His resurrection the historical event of his resurrection demonstrates it But it finally let us also make sure that we ourselves Have repented and embraced the risen Lord Jesus as our very own Lord and Savior May God in his sovereign mercy and grace call you dear sinner to faith in Christ today May you rest in him and may you know that eternal hope that This passage calls us to amen let us pray Our Lord and Father in heaven We thank you that Jesus though he descended into hell descended into the state of the dead for us Has emerged victorious as the resurrected Glorified Lord and we thank you that through faith in him we can look forward to one day being resurrected Into bodies incorruptible we pray that you would help us to live faithful lives in light of these glorious gospel truths We pray these things through Christ our Lord and all of God’s people said amen as We respond to what we’ve heard from the preached word.

Let’s rise and sing together him 367 up from the grave he arose 367

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February 11, 2024
The Church’s Great Commission

About this sermon

Some treat the church as a social club, a tool for fixing society, or a weekly motivational boost, but Christ gives it a clear mission. Matthew presents Jesus as King of the Jews, and after his resurrection he declares that all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to him. He commands his church to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all he commanded. Christ builds his church through ordinary believers, and he promises to be with them always, so the glory belongs to God alone.

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Sermon transcript

And turn in your Bibles first to Isaiah chapter 49. Just two simple verses out of this chapter. Isaiah chapter 49, verses 5 and 6. This is the word of our God. And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has become my strength, he says, It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel. I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. And now if you would turn to Matthew chapter 28. Matthew 28, I’ll read from verse 16 through the end, though we’ll focus on what is known as the Great Commission.

Matthew 28, verse 16. Now the 11 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. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his holy word. Please be seated. Let’s pray. Almighty God in heaven, we do come before you. to hear your word, and we pray that your spirit would impress that word upon our hearts so that you might receive glory and that we might be more and more conformed to the image of Christ.

Give us clarity of understanding, free us from distraction, and may we be changed by your word. We pray this in Christ’s name, amen. A common question that Christians will sometimes be asked is, especially in times of evangelism, something like this, well, what’s the purpose of the church? Why is the church here? What do I need to be a part of the church for? After all, I could just sit at home, just me and my Bible. What is the purpose of the church? Now, for some, sadly enough, it’s just a social gathering. I’m not downplaying social gatherings. We should have fellowship with one another. Other people see the church as really just a natural way to fix society’s problems. Others see it as a means to go once a week, maybe even twice, to get that motivational fix to get you through the week.

Others just send their kids to Sunday school just so that they would have some sort of sense of morality. And what the basis of that morality in their minds is, I don’t know. But that is sometimes what happens. But Jesus here at the end of Matthew’s gospel provides for us one of the great aims and goals of the church, sharing the news of the kingdom of God, sharing the news of the kingdom of heaven. Now, Matthew’s Gospel in general has this overarching theme of trying to depict and demonstrate how Christ fulfills the promises of the Old Testament. Specifically, that Jesus is the King of the Jews who was to come. But more than that, Matthew goes further. He’s not merely the king of the Jews. He is the king of all of creation, the whole of the universe, and we ought to take heed to that truth.

This is seen, this transition, if you will, almost, his birth and genealogy that sets him apart as being the one who is the king of the Jews. But then, of course, as time progresses, as his earthly ministry progresses, and his life, death, and resurrection happen, We see here in the Great Commission that Christ is portrayed not simply as King of the Jews, but the King of the whole universe. There is nothing over which God, Christ specifically, is not in authority over. But he also has a task for this Church, for every Church through the ages. Now, of course, the immediate context here, this follows the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ is with the eleven at Galilee as he met most of his disciples. And he’s now commissioning them. He is preparing them to go and continue the work that Jesus began.

And in fact, just as a bit of an aside, we talk about the book of Acts. And most of our Bibles say the Acts of the Apostles. The truth of the matter is, you read what Luke says in the very beginning of Acts. He says, I told you before what Jesus began to do. Now here’s what he continued to do, even as he ascended into heaven. And so as we think about the work of the church and the task of the church in sharing the kingdom of God, we need to understand that this is ultimately the Lord Jesus Christ who is fulfilling it, not so much ourselves. And that’s a good reminder for us as well that this church, Grace OPC, here in Sewickley, it is ultimately not your church. It is the church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

He owns it. He’s the head of it. He’s the ultimate authority. And it would do well for all churches, all members of all churches, to remember that truth. Well, we come to this Great Commission, as it is often called, and rightly so. And what I hope to show out of this text is really just the aspect of the Commission. And as we look at this, there’s nothing all that profound. It is a text we have read over time and time again in our own private devotion. We’ve read books on evangelism. They always cite the Great Commission. So what I hope to show this morning is simply this. that Jesus commissions his disciples, and the church in particular, to advance his kingdom. Jesus commissions his disciples, and the church in particular, to advance his kingdom. I’m going to look at this under just three headings.

So first of all, we’ll look at the basis for the Great Commission. And secondly, we’ll look at the substance of the Great Commission. And then finally, we’ll look at the promise with the Great Commission. So first of all, the basis of the Great Commission. Again, verse 18. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” All authority. Now the very word authority that’s used here by Matthew in conveying what Jesus said, the word, it could be power or it could be authority. Context helps, but truth be told, it is both power and authority here in this context as we think about who Jesus is, what he’s accomplished, and the fact that he reigns. He has all power and all authority. Not just some, not just part of it, not even just in the church.

He has all authority. There is nothing that is outside of the control and authority of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Now, the word also conveys the idea of warrant. He is the rightful one who has all authority. No one else has this authority. It is Christ alone. And this becomes, in the most basic sense, the basis of the commission. Not some authority, but all authority. It is all absolute and total authority. And if that wasn’t enough, Matthew conveys what Christ says. It is all authority where? In heaven and on earth. In heaven and on earth. A simple idiom, an expression to remind us that declares the comprehensive nature of Christ’s reign. That’s fascinating. You have this passage here in the Great Commission, and we speak of Christ executing the office of a king, and that is certainly true.

The word king doesn’t even occur here. But how could it not, as a concept, be there? Of course it’s there. The one who has all authority is King. Jesus is our King. All authority in heaven and on earth. Christ reigns today. Matthew began his gospel account indicating that Jesus was a long-awaited King of the Jews, and he concludes that Jesus is more than just King of the Jews. He reigns over everything. Now, where did this authority come from? Now, the text says, all authority has been given to me. Well, the implication is somebody gave it to him. That would be his heavenly father. Now, this gets a little bit confusing. And truth be told, even as a kid, I sometimes struggled with the fact that you have Jesus Christ, who is God and man, two persons, or two, that’s heresy, two natures in one person forever.

Let’s edit that. That is an ancient heresy. But I can remember as a kid thinking about such things and thinking, well, if he is God, doesn’t he already have authority? How could it be given to him? Well, truth be told, sometimes even as an adult, I have difficulty grasping this. This is where a solid Christology, that is the study of Christ, comes into play. We recognize that this authority that is being given to him because of his work, because of his life, his death, his resurrection, his soon-to-be-from-the-perspective-of-the-text, his ascension into heaven, that this is Christ as our mediator. the God-man. This is according to his human nature, which he, dare I say, earned as a man. That’s why it’s given to him. He earned it. Christ earned this. He started out by being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

He underwent the miseries of this life. He suffered. He died. God the Son died according to His human nature. But He was risen. He is risen. This is why he has all authority in heaven and on earth. As Paul says in Philippians 2, in that wonderful Christ hymn that we see there, and so God raised him and gave him the name that is above every name that every knee should bow and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord. You see, yes, Jesus is the risen Savior, but he is a king. and he reigns supreme. So the question I have for all of you is, is Jesus your king? Now in one sense, that’s a silly question because even if you try to say no, he still is. It’s much like what we see in the political spectrum of our country in the last few years in particular, maybe even the last couple of decades.

One political party loses the presidential seat, and what will some of the extremes say? Well, he’s not my president. Yes, he is. You may not like it, but he is. So it is in an even greater sense with the Lord Jesus Christ. You may not like it, but he is king, and he reigns supreme. Even if you try to say you don’t believe in Him, as Paul says, that’s you suppressing the truth and unrighteousness. It’s absurd. He is King. So the answer to that question, is He your King? I hope it’s yes, and that you mean it. And of course, King means submission to Him. King means living in obedience to Him. King means that we are a part of his kingdom, and it’s his rules, not anybody else’s. This is, as our catechism indicates, in part how Christ executes the office of a king.

He subdues us to himself. He restrains and conquers all his enemies. This is what a king does. He rules us. He defends us. And for 2,000 years, Christ, as our mediator, has been king. Well, that’s the basis of his Great Commission. Let’s move to the substance, our second point, the substance of the Great Commission. Look now at verse 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. Go therefore. Now you see that word therefore, this is a hint, and some of you know this little trick. And boys and girls, this would be good for you when you read your Bibles to remember this little trick. You see that word therefore. You need to ask yourself every time, what is it therefore?

Every time you see therefore, that means it’s connected in some way to what God has just said. Well, that’s the same thing here. Therefore, since Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth, therefore, that means something. We move from the basis to the command itself, the substance of the Great Commission. He says, go. Now, just taking a step back here for a second, and I’ll try not to bore you with too many Greek grammar details here. But technically, as you read through verses 18 through 20, there’s technically in the Greek only one imperative. There’s only one actual command. And it’s translated here in the ESV and most English translations as, make disciples. Technically, the word go is not an imperative. It’s not a command. Technically, baptizing and teaching are not commands. They do carry the force of a command, but the emphasis on the Great Commission is that make disciples.

But of course, you can’t make disciples unless you first go. And that’s the point. None of us has the excuse to just sit back and say, well, Jesus has all authority. He’s going to build his church. But he uses means. And ordinarily, it is through the church that he begets the church. But we need to go. We need to get out of our comfort zones. We need to be willing to answer, even as Isaiah did after seeing the holiness of God in chapter 6 of Isaiah. Here am I, send me. Now granted, it’s possible you might not be called to missionary, teacher, evangelist, et cetera. Nevertheless, you as a general believer of the church, and that’s no small thing by the way, That is no small thing. You have the ability and the responsibility to share Christ with the lost.

So go, go. The 11 that are here, they are the instruments, they are to be the heralds. They cannot just sit back and expect the kingdom to just happen. Could God do it? Of course he could. But that’s not how he worked. He, in his wisdom, ordained that he would use weak and feeble men such as ourselves to advance his kingdom. I mean, think about it for a minute. Think about history. There’s been a joke recently on social media that men are constantly thinking about the Roman Empire. Okay. Or World War II, that’s another one. But you think about all throughout histories and the great nations and empires, how did they come to become great kingdoms? Usually by conquering another one with weapons of war. They pillaged. They did all kinds of things. They conquered weaker armies.

They came in and destroyed cities. Not so with the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians, our weapons are not carnal but spiritual. And those weapons are able to tear down strongholds and tear down anything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. Those weapons are spiritual and they are intended to be used to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. That’s how Christ’s kingdom works. His kingdom advances by simple proclamation. Now I don’t know about you, from a human perspective, I can think of all kinds of better ways to spread a kingdom than the preaching of the word. But oh, what a God we must serve that he could conquer nations with the gospel by the mere proclamation of that gospel. Do you not see how awesome our God is in this?

You all here are living testimony and proof of that truth. The New Testament church, as it were, started here with 11 disciples. There’s more than 11 in this room. And he did so through the proclamation, because they went. And now the main command, make disciples. Make disciples. Now technically also here in the Greek, it’s a single word. It’s probably better to translate it as a verb, disciple the nations. Make disciples, it’s not wrong. I’m not saying take your pen and cross it out or anything like that. But the stress here is disciple the nations. And here’s why that’s important. Because you hear make disciples, the temptation then becomes, okay, I go out and I evangelize my neighbor, my coworker. He’s come to saving faith and we rejoice in that. And then we just kick back and relax.

Well, I’ve made my disciple. You see, the command here to disciple the nations is much deeper than mere evangelism. It absolutely contains evangelism, but it is far deeper than that. When we took, we just witnessed vows of parents vowing to raise their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. That’s discipleship. That’s lifelong. Sadly, many in evangelical circles have taken evangelism as the end-all be-all of everything the church does. I’m not diminishing it, but it’s not all we do. We disciple the nations. That takes a lifetime. And it is something that is ongoing, and it is comprehensive. Now, think about the word disciple. Now, again, the noun disciple is not technically there. But nevertheless, the idea of a disciple is one who is a learner, a follower. If we are disciples of Christ, that means we are learners of Christ.

We learn from Christ, we learn about Christ, who he is, what he’s done, what it means for me, but we’re also followers of Christ. And we know from other passages in the gospel what Jesus said, if you wish to be my disciple, you need to deny yourself, Take up your cross and follow me. That’s what a disciple does, follows. We disciple the nations. Not simply teach, but disciple. Not simply evangelize, but disciple. A disciple learns and practices what the master teaches. Are you a disciple? Obviously, it begins with knowing Christ as your Lord and Savior. But as a disciple, do you continue to learn Christ? Do you continue to practice what the Master teaches? That’s what a disciple does. And the elders of this church and the elders of my church back in Tulsa, we have the responsibility to disciple people who have been members even for decades.

Discipleship does not end when somebody comes to faith. Actually, it’s just beginning. It’s just beginning. And notice the object of this command. Disciple the nations. The nations. We read earlier from Isaiah 49, five and six. It’s just such a wonderful passage. You think about the Old Testament and how the Lord is calling his people. But in Isaiah, you have this moment where he says, it’s actually too little a thing to save just Jacob, the people of Israel. I’m gonna send my servant to be a light to the nations, plural. But my friends, you think about it, and as you read through your Old Testament, I’m sure maybe some of you have already kind of failed your New Year’s resolution on Bible reading. Just pick it up again, it’s okay. But in particularly, I noticed when I was preaching through the Psalms in Tulsa, I noticed how often the Psalms have an other nations mentality, not just simply for judgment, but for evangelism.

There was confession and prayer in these Psalms that the nations would come before the Lord. This is not a new concept to the New Testament. Nations are to be discipled. Well, how do we do this? Well, Jesus gives us two ways, the substance and how we do it. First, he says, baptizing them. This is also where I gotta get a little bit technical, so bear with me. This is what’s known, grammatically speaking, as describing how we do it. We disciple by means of baptizing. We disciple by means of teaching. Now, what that also means, and if you don’t follow this, that’s okay. What that means is that we disciple by means of baptizing. That means that technically, logically, baptism precedes discipleship. Think about that. Logically speaking. That’s why I have a hard time with this text.

When good brothers disagree with our views of baptism, and they say, notice that it says you become a disciple, then you’re baptized. No, the text, the way it’s worded, it’s more along the lines, you disciple by means of. So part of what we do in baptism is signifying they’re a disciple. They already are. Even our children are disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ himself said, and the last time I was here and stood at this pulpit, I preached from the text of Mark 10, of such as these is the kingdom. But we also teach. We teach, we baptize and we teach. Now baptism deals with baptizing in the triune name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We baptize in the name. Now there’s two ways that could be taken. That could be taken as we’re bearing as disciples the name of Christ.

That’s grammatically allowable. That’s legitimate. But given the emphasis that the New Testament especially has on the doctrine of our union with Christ, it seems better to understand this, that it is being baptized into the name, into the triune God. If we’re united to Christ, we’re united to the Father, because the Father and the Son are one. And of course, by implication, so is the Spirit. This does not mean we become divine. But it means we have that mystical union on account of what Christ has accomplished. And baptism signifies our union with the triune God. If you want to read more about union with Christ, I would commend to you John Murray’s Redemption, Accomplished and Applied. The chapter on union with Christ alone is worth the price of the book. into the singular one name of the Father, of the Son, of the Holy Spirit.

Baptizing and teaching. Notice, teaching what? Arithmetic, reading comprehension, all those things are good. You should learn those things. Notice what Jesus says, teaching them all that I have commanded. I actually misquoted that. Jesus doesn’t say, teach them all that I have commanded. He actually says, teaching them to keep or to observe all that I have commanded. See, this is the part that rubs people the wrong way. They don’t want to be told what to do. Jesus is saying, you as disciple makers need to teach the nations to obey all that I have commanded. Where do we find what Jesus has commanded? Well, we find it in his word. We find it from Genesis 1-1 all the way to the end of Revelation. It’s not just the red letters. Unless you made your entire Bible red letter, which on computers we can do nowadays.

But the truth of the matter is, all that Christ has commanded we are to teach. Is it any wonder then that this is a lifetime task in discipling the nations? And the thing about it is, even those of us who are ministers of the gospel, we still need to learn what Christ has taught us. Some of you have heard this story. I can remember right after graduating seminary in Greenville, I was serving on the session down in South Carolina there, and we had one of the board members come a little later that summer, and he knows my family, and this is Dr. Ian Hamilton. And he sits there, we’re ready to pray before the service. He’s sitting there, he looks at me and he says in his Scottish accent, which I could never do justice, so you’ve graduated.

Now your theological training is about to begin. And oh, was he right. None of us should ever think we’ve mastered Christ’s teaching. That’s another irony. I have a master of divinity. Your pastor has a master of divinity. When are we ever going to master divinity on this side of glory? This is why Disciple the Nations involves ongoing teaching, encouragement, exhortation to keep all of Christ’s commands. We need to obey Christ. He’s our King. Now please understand, that is not works-based righteousness. We do not obey in order to be saved. We obey because Christ has redeemed us and now we’re free to obey. We do so out of thankfulness for what he’s done for us. We do it because our obedience testifies to the world that we belong to Jesus and we joy in obeying him.

Even though I sometimes find it hard. That’s the pollution of sin that remains within us. But Christ as our King at the cross broke the chains of bondage to sin for those who have faith in Him. And now we’re set free to live in obedience to His commands. It’s not something that is a burden. My friends, living in obedience to Christ is a privilege. teaching them to keep all that he has commanded. That’s why it’s gonna take a lifetime. That’s why it will take a lifetime. Now we need to ask ourselves a couple questions here. Is everyone to do this? And the answer to the question is both yes and no. First and foremost, from the no perspective. Everyone is not to preach. Everyone is not to baptize. Now I’m using preach here in a very technical sense.

Again, to try not to get too bogged down into the concepts and the use of language. The typical word that we think of that is often translated either preach or proclaim in many English translation also carries the idea behind it of divine warrant. The individual who is truly preaching is the one who has been given the authority to do it. That’s not every member of the church. Because preaching, true preaching is connected to the sacraments. The sacraments connected to the preaching. Ministers of the word have this task. That’s why ultimately, and that’s why the focus here is really on the church’s great commission. But what about the yes aspect of it? Every single one of us can share Christ with our neighbor. Every single one of us can give a reason for the hope that we have within us.

It may not be preaching with a capital P, but it is still testifying to the truth and confessing of what Christ has done for you before men. All of us can do that, even if not all of us can preach, properly speaking. But if you’re gonna help as a disciple yourself of Jesus Christ, in sharing Christ, sharing the idea that what Christ wants is a kingdom of worshipers, that what Christ wants is to redeem sinners, you know what you’re going to have to do as you share Christ? You’re really gonna have to know your Bibles. Part of discipleship involves teaching them to keep all that I have commanded. That’s the whole Bible. Now, I’m not saying everybody needs to go out and go to a seminary somewhere, but read your Bible, ask the Spirit to bring to mind the things that you have read, that it may give blessing to the one near you across that table that needs to hear of Christ.

All of us can share Christ, even if only some are called and ordained to the task of preaching. Well, that’s the substance of the command. Volumes have been written on that. Well, let’s go then to our third and final point, and we’ll do this briefly. The promise with the commission. Notice now verse 20. The latter portion of verse 20, behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Behold. Boys and girls, that’s another word that you should pay attention to when you read your Bibles, behold. It’s intended to grab your attention. It’s intended to remind you that what’s really about to be said is really important. Because you think about this here in the text of the Great Commission. Disciple the nations, baptize, teaching them to keep all, the world hates us.

They hate us. Couldn’t we just pick up guns and get some tanks and do it that way? Metaphorically speaking, that’s already been tried, it doesn’t work. What Christ is asking us to do is impossible. It is. You heard that right. It is impossible. How can we possibly be expected to disciple the nations? The answer is given here with a promise. Behold, I am with you. That’s why you can do it. And in fact, the way it is presented here in the original Greek is emphatic. Christ is emphatic here. I myself am with you. If you want to be wooden, it’s I with you, I am. That’s what he says. An impossible task needs a most awesome promise. Christ is with you. He’s with us. That’s why we need not fear. Of course it’s impossible for us.

But nothing is impossible for Jesus Christ. He has shown, and all of us should remember this, He has shown for 2,000 years that He is with His church and the church has advanced. The promise that he made, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her, has proven true. Despite what you might see on the news, despite what you might see in social media of this government, this business, this, that, the other thing, oppressing Christians in some way, as though somehow the Lord Jesus Christ is being stymied, He’s not on His throne wringing His hands, brothers and sisters. He reigns supreme and He is with us. We’ve got to go beyond just what our eyes see and just what our ears hear and rest upon the promise that Christ is with us.

And brothers and sisters, we ought to pray in that fashion as well. We pray in a generic sense, Lord, spread the gospel. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But we ought to, even in our prayer lives, remember the very promises that God has made in his word, promises that Christ has made to his church, and pray in those terms. Christ, you have promised to build your church. Oh, build your church. Do it, because you’ve promised it. He is with us. And notice, always, not just occasionally, not just for those special occasions, not just because, well, he’s a little busy over here. He’ll get to you when he can. He is always with us and literally it’s all the days. It’s comprehensive. Christ is with you all the days. Each and every day. Same then, same today, same as tomorrow.

We live day by day, each with our own worries to be sure. But Christ is with you in those days. He’s with us. He’s with you. All the days, and then again, until the end of the age. The end of the age being the consummation, the perfection, the completion of the age. That day when Christ returns. You see, in this life, the situation really is not gonna change all that much. The church will grow. But so will the world’s hatred for the church and for Jesus Christ. There will be warfare between the world and the church. We’re to live in this world and not be of this world. This will be the situation. And that sounds awfully pessimistic, doesn’t it? As a non-millennialist, I sometimes get accused of being pessimistic. Christ reigns today. There’s nothing pessimistic about that.

He is building his church today. There’s nothing pessimistic about that. And oh, while the world may grow in its hatred and conflict against the church, nevertheless, Christ is with us. He’s here today. Yes, it’s an impossible task, but Christ reigns supreme today. That’s why we need not fear. That’s why we can obey this command and go disciple the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to keep all that He has commanded because He’s with us even to the end of the age. Yes, an impossible task, but he’s there. Our risen Savior, the one with all authority in heaven and on earth, has commissioned us to go and disciple the nations. But you need not fear. Go, advance his kingdom in whatever way God has deemed fit for you to do in the everyday life.

Go, disciple the nations. Bear the name of Christ. and let him do the work. Let him do the work. You don’t have the right to boast. Oh, because of my wise words, 20 people came to Christ. You’re just a mouthpiece. It is God through his Son, by his Spirit, that brings salvation. Yes, you may be the instrument, but it is God alone who gets all the glory. And King Jesus reigns supreme. And so, brothers and sisters, leave here with confidence that Christ is with you and that he has equipped you to go and disciple the nations. Amen, let’s pray. Our great God and Father in heaven, how we rejoice in what your word teaches. Particularly the truth that Jesus is with us. The one who was born, who lived, who died for us, and is now risen and seated at your right hand.

The one with all authority in heaven and on earth. May that truth give us boldness and confidence to go and be instruments in the hands of Christ as we disciple the nations. We pray all this in His name, amen. If you would take your psalter hymnal now and turn to our hymn of response, hymn number 424, All Authority in Power, hymn 424. Let’s stand as we sing this together.

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January 14, 2024
Herod, the Wise Men, and the King of the Jews

About this sermon

Wise men from the East come to Jerusalem looking for the newborn King of the Jews, and Herod, troubled, pretends he wants to worship too. The chief priests point to Micah’s prophecy of Bethlehem, and the star leads the magi to the child, where they fall down, worship him, and offer gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Scripture never says they were kings or that there were three. Everyone serves either King Jesus or the usurper, and wise men and women still seek Christ in his word.

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Sermon transcript

Matthew’s record of the visit of the wise men. Let us hear God’s holy word, Matthew chapter 2, verses 1 through 12. Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king. Behold, wise came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose, and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them, Where the Christ They told him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophets, and you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people.

When Herod summoned the wise men secretly, he obtained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him. After listening to the king, they went on their way, and behold, the star that they had seen before them rose, went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Almighty God, in this very familiar passage of Holy Scripture, we pray that you would grant us new insight and that you would help us to see afresh the wisdom and the insight and portion of Holy Scripture. We would ask that you would give me strength and grace to speak forth your word with clarity and power. We pray that you would set a guard over my lips, that I might speak only that which is faithful to your word, for the glory of your name and the building up of your people. And we pray, Heavenly Father, that you would grant us eyes to see and ears to hear what the Spirit is speaking to us in this portion of your God-breathed, inerrant, infallible, authoritative Word.

We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen. We will return on the next Lord’s Day to the Foundations of Faith series, but for today I thought it would be important to consider this vital passage of God’s Word because it does record for us a very significant event in redemptive history. The title of my sermon today is Herod, the Wise Men, and the King of the Jews. And there’s three key words that the children can listen for today, the words king, magi, and messiah. Well, dear friends, in our passage for this Lord’s Day morning, we read a story that is very familiar, namely Matthew’s account of the wise men or magi visiting the newborn king, Jesus of Nazareth. But like many other stories that we have heard often, this is a story that we have heard so often that we can tend to gloss over its details.

We can tend to miss the deep truths of God that we are meant to learn from this amazing historical account. You’ve heard the saying that familiarity breeds contempt. Well, in the case of scripture, familiarity does not necessarily breed contempt, but it can certainly tempt us to tune out and not listen carefully because we assume that, hey, we’ve already heard this before, we know what it says, and so. we don’t really need to pay much attention. But my dear Christian friends, I want to challenge and encourage us this morning to consider this passage of God’s holy word as if we are hearing it for the very first time. For this passage of scripture has a great deal to teach us about the ways of God with sinful man. And in particular, this passage marks a marvelous event in redemptive history, an event which anticipates greater things yet to come.

Now let’s consider the context. Jesus had already been born in Bethlehem sometime before the visit of the wise men. Contrary to the way that it is often depicted in traditional manger scenes, when the wise men came to visit, Joseph and Mary were no longer in the stable or shelter for animals where Jesus had been born. Instead, they’re now living in a house If you skip ahead to verse 11, we are told that explicitly. It says in verse 11, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Now remember that Joseph and Mary resided in Nazareth, but they had to travel to Bethlehem to be registered in the census. And apparently after they were registered, they stuck around in Bethlehem for a time, possibly for up to two years, because remember when Herod sends out the troops to slaughter the innocents in Bethlehem, What did he say?

Kill every male child from two years old and under. So we can assume that Jesus was somewhere between the time of birth and two years of age. In any case, Though Matthew’s Gospel has been often described as the most Jewish of the four Gospels because of Matthew’s emphasis on how Jesus had fulfilled Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah. Nonetheless, here in this passage, friends, we find Matthew towards the very beginning of his Gospel account describing a visit that the Lord Jesus had received from a group of important Gentile officials. Gentile officials who came from a distant land. Gentiles who had come to honor the Lord Jesus as the newborn King of the Jews. As we read these magi or wise men as they come to Jerusalem, which would be the city of the King Where is he who has been born King of the Jews?

For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” Friends, this passage pulsates with redemptive historical significance. It highlights the royalty of Jesus as the newborn Messiah and King. It also underscores that while it is proper in one sense to call king of the Jews, for indeed he is the king of the Jews. His royal kingship is not limited to the Jews. For even Gentiles from distant lands come to give him their homage and allegiance. So the visit participates the gathering of the Gentiles into God’s kingdom and in gathering that takes place in this new covenant age as both Jews and Gentiles throughout the earth come to trust in Jesus Christ as their very own Lord and Savior and are saved and brought into God’s kingdom through the evangelistic efforts of Christ’s Church.

Now as we dive into our passage for the focus on the first six verses of our passage. And in this opening section of chapter two, I want us to, first of all, consider a contrast that is presented to us between two kings. That’s the first main point in your sermon. Let us consider a contrast between two kings. A contrast between two kings. And let me just go through this passage and make some comments. It says, after Jesus was born, We read of the birth of Jesus in the closing section of chapter one, where the angel had revealed that Jesus was to be born of the Virgin Mary, and he was to be named Jesus. He was to be called Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. And so again, the setting is after the birth of Jesus. in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, we’ll talk about Herod in a moment, behold, that means pay attention, this is important, wise men or magi from the east came to Jerusalem saying, where is he who is the king of the Jews?

For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. and we’ll get into the issue of what is this star and who were these wise men. We’ll get into those issues in a few moments. But let’s first of all dive into the question of who is this King Herod. Who is this King that is being spoken of here in verse 1? He is described as Herod the King. In fact, Herod was himself regarded in the Roman Empire as the King of the Jews at that time and thus one of the reasons why Herod feels threatened by this announcement that a king of the Jews has been born and the wise men are searching for this king of the Jews who would obviously replace King Herod. Who was King Herod? Dr. D.A.

Carson in his commentary He says Herod the Great, as he is now called, was born in 73 B.C. and was named King of Judea by the Roman Senate in 40 B.C. By 37 B.C. he had crushed with the help of Roman forces all opposition to his rule. son of the Idumean Antipater, he was wealthy, politically gifted, intensely loyal, an excellent administrator, and clever enough to remain in the good graces of successive Roman emperors. So he was a polished and he was a gifted politician and administrator. But his character was another story. Carson goes on to say of Herod that his famine relief was superb and his building projects, including the temple begun in 20 BC, admired even by his foes, but he loved power, inflicted incredibly heavy taxes on the people, and resented the fact that many Jews considered him a usurper.

In his last years, suffering an illness that compounded his paranoia, he turned to cruelty, and in fits of rage and jealousy, killed close associates, his wife, Mary Amni, of Jewish descent from the Maccabeans, and at least two of his sons. So Herod the Great was not an easy man. In fact, his cruelty is seen in how he reacted when the wise men went back to their country by a different route and thus did not provide Herod with the information that he wanted. We see in this account that when Herod hears this, in his view, disturbing news from these wise men, these magi from the east, you know, where is he who has been born King of the Jews, what does Herod do? He sends them out, he gets the priests together to give him information about where the Messiah would be born and they quoted from the passage in Micah chapter The Messiah would be born in Bethlehem of Judea.

And it says in verse 7, Herod secretly and ascertained from them what time and he sent them to Bethlehem saying, go and search diligently for the child. And when you found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him. Oh, doesn’t Herod sound so pious here? I want to worship him. Bring me word. But we know that his, what His real intentions were to kill the Lord Jesus, to snuff him out in order to hold on to his power as the king of the Jews. Again, his cruelty is seen in how he by a different route, and thus did not provide Herod with the information he wanted. It says in verse 12, and how does Herod react to that? We’ll skip down to verses 16. Let me read verses 16 through 18.

It says, then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Again, Herod is acting in character based on what we know about him from other historical accounts as well. Herod is certainly acting in character here when he sends out these forces to slaughter the innocents. And this is done in fulfillment of prophecy. It says in verse 17, then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Ramah weeping in loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted because they are no more. What do we learn as we contrast these two kings of the Jews, if you will, as we contrast the identities of Jesus and Herod?

We see a sharp contrast. Consider Jesus. Jesus is revealed in Scripture as, of course, the divine Son of God, the messianic king from the line of David, Great David’s greater son, as predicted by the Old Testament prophets. On the other hand, we have Herod. Herod was but a puppet king of the Roman Empire, and by his fruits he showed himself not to be God, but a child and servant of the devil, as shown by the fruits of his life. few contrasts could be more sharp than the contrast between the Lord Jesus Christ and Herod the Great. We also see a sharp contrast in their characters. Herod, as this passage of scripture and as other historical records bear witness, Herod was a cruel, deceptive, hypocritical, violent, unjust, evil king. But Jesus, on the other hand, is the peaceful King.

He is indeed the Prince of Peace. He is a Savior who is gentle to sinners. He is just. He is righteous. He is truthful. In fact, Jesus is the living truth. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father except by me. Dear friends, ultimately Herod was a servant and representative of Satan, the arch enemy of Christ. In a very real sense, Satan was the spiritual king behind King Herod. So which king will you serve? Everybody’s gotta serve somebody. We were created to serve because we were created in the image of God. But who are you gonna serve? Will you serve Jesus Christ, King of the Jews and King of Kings, or will you serve Satan, the pseudo-king that animated the likes of Herod the Great? There are no other choices.

You’re either a servant of King Jesus, or you’re a servant of the pseudo-king, Satan. But next, let’s consider the identity and the significance of the Magi, described here in the English Standard Version, or translated as wise men from the East. Who were these wise men? And you might say, well, that’s easy, Pastor. Doesn’t it say in that wonderful Christmas hymn, we three kings of Orient are? Well, I hope I don’t step on any toes this morning. It is far from certain that these men were kings. And furthermore, we don’t know how many there were. You say, well, wait a minute. The hymn says we three kings of Orient are. The Bible doesn’t say how many they were. They might have been three. They might have been 33. We don’t know. Well, who are they? It says, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men are magi from the east. came to Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born King of the Jews?

For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. This reference to them seeing a star has suggested to some commentators that these men were perhaps astrologers. And whether they were astrologers in the occultic sense of astrology, or more in the sense of students of the sky, can be debated, but some have suggested that they were astrologers. And what is this star that is referenced? It seems to be a rather unusual star. It seems to be a star that kind of moves. Some have suggested various astronomical phenomenon have been suggested to explain this star. Others, I that this star was actually what theologians have called a theophany, a visible representation or manifestation of God’s special presence, his saving presence. We see multiple, many theophanies revealed in the scripture. For example, the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night that attended the Israelites, them through the wilderness and to the promised land and so forth.

Perhaps it was some supernatural sign that looked like a star but was actually something of a more supernatural nature. But here’s where we have to be careful. It’s very easy to get We’re not told in great detail who these magi were. We need to accept what they say and not go beyond what is written. So I would warn us against overmuch speculation. But in terms of the Magi, as one commentator has written, the Magi were not kings, according to this commentator, but priests or court advisors, such as Joseph or Daniel. They were probably from Mesopotamia, the region of ancient Babylon, although other locations east of Palestine have been suggested. There are numerous accounts of ancient astrologers interpreting astronomical phenomena as heralding the birth of kings. And so again, that may not answer all of our questions, but I think it gives us a framework for understanding.

These were important figures, perhaps court officials or priests from a different land, and they came from afar. They came from the east, and they came because they saw the star of the King of the Jews. What is the significance of this? First of all, let me just say that Matthew probably got this account, very likely, from Mary, from Joseph and Mary, or at least Mary. And so this we can take, this account we should take as a historical account and not as theological fiction as the liberals would have us believe. The visit of the Magi, what was its significance? Well, the visit of the Magi is an initial fulfillment of Old Testament anticipations that the Gentiles would render worship and allegiance to the true God and to his Messiah. These magi, again, whoever they were, They came from afar seeking Jesus, seeking the King of the Jews.

And what did they do when they finally found him, when they finally saw the place where the star rested and pointed them to his location? It says, verse 10, when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child, his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him. Their treasures, and these treasures, by the way, would have been of great financial help to Mary and Joseph and their young family, opening their treasures. They offered him gifts, three gifts are mentioned, and that’s probably where we got the idea of we three kings of Orient are from the three gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And it says that they worshipped him They fell down and worshiped him. They gave him honor and glory. Now we can debate about how accurately did they understand about our Lord’s deity?

Was this worship religious worship or just simply the showing of honor? But the point is, I actually did offer Jesus worship as a God, as the God King. the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. But nonetheless, this is anticipated in the Old Testament scriptures. in the Old Testament that predict that there will come a time in the latter days, in the messianic age, when people from every tribe, tongue, language, and nation will come and worship the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the true and living God. And just to give you a couple passages that anticipate the very actions of these magi. Let’s turn, for example, to Psalm 72, and let me read and briefly comment on Psalm 72, verses 10 and 11, as we compare scripture with scripture. Psalm 72, verses 10 and 11.

Again, this is a messianic psalm. It says, may the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute. Render who tribute? The messianic king, great David’s greater son. Render him tribute. May the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts. May all kings fall down before him. All nations serve him. The spirit of prophecy here in this passage points forward to a time in redemptive history when people from all the nations will come and worship the true and living God. Or consider Isaiah chapter 60, verses three through six. Isaiah chapter 60, verses three through six. We could consider many other passages, but I just wanna give you a few here. Let me start at verse one. In Isaiah chapter 60, arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples. But the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations, not just the nation of Israel, not just the Jews, but nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around and see they all gather together. They come to you, your son. far, and your daughter shall be carried on the hip. Then you shall see and be radiant. Your heart shall thrill and exult because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you. The wealth of the nation shall come to you. A multitude,” notice especially verse six, “‘A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah. All those from Sheba shall come.

They shall bring,” what? They shall bring gold and frankincense and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord. Beloved, based on passages like this, I believe that it is right and correct to say that the visit of the wise men anticipates the gathering of the Gentile nations into God’s kingdom under the new covenant that Jesus the Messiah came to this earth to ratify by his precious blood. And I imagine that most of us, if not all of us gathered here today are of Gentile stock, of Gentile background. We who are Gentile believers in Christ, we are part of that great in-gathering which the visit of the wise men anticipates. And dear listener, let me again ask you, has the Lord gathered you into his kingdom? Have you by sovereign grace come to acknowledge Jesus of Nazareth As the Son of God, the promised Messiah, the Anointed One, the Word made flesh, have you come to acknowledge Him and trust in Him as Lord and Savior?

God calls you to Christ this day. Psalm 2 calls upon all the kings of the earth, by implication, all who are subject to them, to kiss the Son lest He be angry. Come to Jesus in repentance and faith. Trust in Him as your very own Lord and Savior. And the Word of God says, you shall be saved. In closing, friends, people of God, like the wise men of old, let us give our allegiance and our worship to the King of Kings, Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us give our allegiance and our worship in the new year and at all times to the King of Kings, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Perhaps you’ve heard that saying, wise men still seek Him. It’s almost become a cliche, but you know, sometimes cliches have at least an element of truth in it, and that saying has more than just an element of truth.

Wise men indeed still seek Him. The wise men, the magi that we read of in our passage for today, they sought the Lord from a distant country. They were Gentiles from a far country who were outside of the covenant people of God and who had limited knowledge of and limited access to the revealed truth of God. But they used well, by the grace of God, they used well the little light that they had been given. And they sought the messianic king, Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews, the king of kings. Have you sought the savior? Maybe metaphorically speaking, you have dwelt in a far country for a long time. even if it’s been a long time, and even if you have lived in a far country, far away from fellowship with God, far away from fellowship with his church, your past neglect is no excuse to continue that neglect.

Remember that our gracious Heavenly Father delights in welcoming home repentant prodigals who turn back to Him. And remember that our Savior is gentle to those, He is gentle and kind to those who acknowledge their need and turn to Him. Jesus has come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The wise men from the East were willing to take a long and arduous journey to seek the newborn King. The only journey that you and I have to take is to open up the pages of the Word of God and to sit under the reading and faithful preaching of God’s Word. Let us show ourselves to be wise men and women, wise boys and girls by seeking Him. And let us remember our Savior’s promise. Jesus, in Matthew 7, said, ask, and it will be given you.

Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds. And to the one who knocks, it will be opened. Again, dear friends, as the saying goes, wise men still seek Him. May you and I seek him truly and seek him today. May we make it our goal in 2024 to seek the Lord with greater earnestness and resolve. And as he promised to all who truly seek him, may you find him and in finding him, may you find that forgiveness and salvation and life eternal that only he can give as a gift of his sovereign, omnipotent grace. Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, sovereign and eternal God, we would pray that by your spirit, you would take these truths and drive them home to our hearts.

We have heard things today, perhaps Lord, that we’ve heard many times, but we pray that once again, you would grant us fresh ears that what we have heard would take deep root in our hearts and bear spiritual fruit unto salvation and sanctification in our lives. We would ask, Lord, that you would give us a greater desire, a greater hunger and thirst to seek the Savior, to seek to know Him better, to trust Him more, to follow Him with greater zeal in the new year and always. We pray these things, Heavenly Father, through Christ our Lord and all of God’s people said.

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December 31, 2023
Foundations of Faith: I Believe in Jesus Christ

About this sermon

1. The supernatural origin of Jesus the Christ (vv. 18-20).
2. What our Lord’s supernatural origin teaches us about His person (v. 20).
3. What our Lord’s name reveals about His Divine mission (v. 21).

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Sermon transcript

remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. We continue this morning, this sermon series, this mini series called Foundations of Faith, a series, a Bible-based series that is being guided by the Apostles’ Creed, that great classic creed of the faith. And this morning, the title of my sermon is Foundations of Faith, I Believe in Jesus Christ. Our passage for this morning, taken from Matthew’s Gospel, Matthew chapter one, Verses 18 through 21, that’s what we’ll be focusing on today. Although I’m gonna read verses 18 through 25 to kind of fill out the context. Matthew chapter one, beginning at verse 18, reading through verse 25. Dear friends, hear the word of God. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus.

Dear ones, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the proclamation of His Word. Our Lord God and Heavenly Father, we pray that by Your Spirit, You would take Your Word and plant it deeply within our souls. We pray that the seed of Your Word would indeed take deep root in our hearts and bear much spiritual fruit unto salvation and sanctification in our lives. We pray that you would help us to be attentive and we ask that you would grant unto me, your unworthy servant, the grace to declare and proclaim your word with clarity and power for the glory of your name and for the building up of your church. In Jesus’ name we pray and all of God’s people said. Amen.

You may be seated. Again, direct your attention to the sermon outline, which was made available in the foyer, and I’d encourage the children to choose a couple of the key words to keep track of during my sermon today. If that helps you to understand and follow along with the sermon, there’s quite a number of words to listen for. And friends, again, as I mentioned, the title of my sermon today is Foundations of Faith, I Believe in Jesus Christ. Well, dear friends, what is it that makes biblical historic Christianity distinct from every other religion and every other religious system out there in the world? Well, I had the opportunity and privilege in college to be a religious studies major, and one thing I can tell you is that students of comparative religion will often highlight the surface level similarities that exist between the various world religions, including Christianity.

And so, for example, some of those similarities might include such things as supernatural beliefs, that is, belief in a supernatural being or beings, the study of writings that are regarded by the religion as sacred scripture, a belief in prophets or holy men who speak for or represent the divine, the practice of prayer, religious rituals, the observance of sacred days, and so forth. The list could go on. And certainly at least the great Western religions, namely Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, share these kinds of surface-level similarities with one another. And so, for example, our Muslim friends, they have their own holy book, which they call the Quran. They believe that their final prophet was Muhammad. They hold him in high regard. They also believe that Jesus was a prophet, but not the final prophet, and so forth.

And so there are some similarities. But the one factor that sets Orthodox biblical Christianity apart from every other religion in the world is, of course, the person and work of its founder, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth, a man whom we Christians believe to be not merely a great prophet of God, though he certainly was that, but a man whom we also confess to be the promised Messiah, the divine Son of God and Lord incarnate, the living Word made flesh who came to dwell in our midst, the one and only God-appointed Savior for sinners. Dear ones, our passage for this Lord’s Day morning from St. Matthew’s Gospel account introduces us to this amazing man whom we confess to be our divine Lord and Savior. And in Matthew’s account of our Lord’s supernatural conception and virgin birth, the supernatural origin of Jesus Christ is highlighted and underscored.

Friends, it is on the basis of passages such as this one that the historic church has confessed in the words of the second credo of that famous creed known as the Apostle’s Creed, I believe in Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, our Lord. This Lord’s Day morning, we focus on the first part of that second credo, namely the words, I believe in Jesus Christ. We’re gonna consider what it means to believe in Jesus Christ and who Jesus Christ is. Our passage from God’s word for this Lord’s Day morning reveals some vital truths about our Lord, about his person and about his mission in the world. So as we turn our attention to our passage for this Lord’s Day morning, let’s first consider from verses 18 through 20, the supernatural origin of Jesus the Christ. Our passage for today highlights and points to the supernatural origin of Jesus the Christ.

We’re told in verse 18, now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. And so Matthew is presenting us with historic information about the birth of a real man of history, namely Jesus Christ. And by the way, the evidence for the existence of a man named Jesus is profound. It’s not just in the Bible, but there are secular sources that confirm that Jesus indeed was a real man of history. And even the most skeptical scholars believe that. There are only a few. on the fringes who dispute that, and they don’t have good reasons for disputing that. The evidence is very firm. Jesus Christ did exist as a man of history, and of course, he was born. But how did his birth take place? Well, that’s what Matthew focuses on in our passage for today.

Now, notice how he describes Jesus of Nazareth in this first statement here in verse 18. The birth of Jesus Christ. When you hear the name Jesus Christ, My suspicion is that many folks, especially here in the West, we have a custom, you have a first name and a last name. So my first name is Jeffrey, my last name is Willauer. And so, and you probably likewise have a similar first name and a last name. Fred Smith, you know, Fred’s the first name, Smith is the last name. And we tend to think, well, Okay, Jesus is his first name and Christ is his last name, but that’s not actually the case. You see, the term Christ was not originally understood as our Lord’s last name. Jesus Christ’s legal father, Joseph, was not named Joseph Christ. Mary was not Mary Christ.

The term Christ instead was a title. The word Christ in the Greek Christos is the Greek term for Messiah, and Messiah means anointed one. And so to believe in Jesus Christ means to believe, among many other things, it means to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was and is the Messiah whom God had promised in the Old Testament Scriptures, that he is God’s chosen and anointed prophet, priest, and king, the prophet, priest, and king that the Old Testament Scriptures had typified and pointed forward to in the prophetic writings. Now in Matthew, it’s interesting, Matthew introduces his gospel, if you go back to the very first verse of Matthew chapter 1, Matthew begins his gospel in a way that many of us today in our culture would view as rather boring. He starts off with a list of names, with a genealogy.

Well, this is one indication that Matthew’s gospel has justifiably been called the most Jewish of all of the gospels, because as you see, as you know, if you’re familiar with the Old Testament scriptures, there are many genealogies in the Old Testament scriptures, and that’s very significant. God is a God of history, a God who is working out his plan and purposes for his people within the context of chronological history. And so how does Matthew begin his gospel? Well, he says the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, Jesus the Christ. And how does he start off describing Jesus Christ? He is the son of David, the son of Abraham. Now this is incredibly significant, beloved. It’s significant because the Old Testament prophets had predicted that the coming Messiah would be of the house and lineage of King David.

That the Messiah would be great David’s greater son. And by the way, that terminology where Matthew designates Jesus as the son of David. That doesn’t mean that Jesus was the direct son of David. That terminology son of was a way of saying descendant of. Jesus was a descendant of David and then the son of Abraham. Jesus indeed is being pointed to from the very first verse of this gospel. He is being pointed to as great David’s greater son, the promised Messiah, the anointed of the Lord. And so that is how he is described in our passage for today as well. And so that’s very significant. But not only that, we are also told in the scriptures that the covenant promises of God were made to Abraham and to his offspring. Not only has Jesus been introduced by Matthew already as the son or descendant of David, but as the son or descendant of Abraham.

That too is significant because we are told in the scriptures that the covenant promises of God were made to Abraham and his offspring. The Apostle Paul explains this in Galatians 3, verse 16. If you want to flip ahead with me to, very briefly, to Galatians 3, verse 16, Paul writes this. Now the promises, he’s speaking about God’s promises of grace and salvation given to Abraham and Abraham’s seed or offspring. The promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say and to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one and to your offspring. Who is Christ? Paul the Apostle identifies the one offspring, singular of Abraham, to be the Lord Jesus Christ. And in union with Christ, God’s people are descendants, children of Abraham. Whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, if you are in Christ, you are a child of Abraham.

And Paul makes that point if you skip down to verse 29 of chapter three, Galatians 3, 29. where Paul writes, and if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. You don’t have to be a Jew for this to be true. You can be a Gentile too. If you are in Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring. The covenant promises of grace and salvation apply to you as well. Now getting back to our passage for today, we are introduced to Jesus the Christ, the one who is great David’s greater son, the promised Messiah, the one in whom all of the covenant promises of God given to Abraham are fulfilled and in union with whom we enjoy those covenant promises of grace and salvation. And so what does all this mean in terms of what does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ?

Well friends, we learn from all of this that to believe in Jesus Christ means believing that he is the promised Messiah. He is the one in whom and through whom all the covenant blessings of salvation are enjoyed by the people of God. And so Again, verse 18, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. And here’s how it unfolded in redemptive history. These are the events that happened. It says this, when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Mary and Joseph were betrothed. Does that mean that they were engaged in the modern sense of that term? Well, it was more than that. Unlike a modern engagement, betrothal in the first century Jewish context was actually considered to be nearly as legally binding as a full consummated marriage itself.

This can be seen from the fact that Joseph, we are told, resolved to divorce her quietly. We’re told that in verse 19. Joseph resolved to divorce Mary quietly once it became obvious that she was pregnant. And the reason that, obviously, that Joseph resolved initially to do that is because the natural assumption would have been, well, Mary must have been unfaithful to me. He must have broken our troth. He must have, she must have been, she must have behaved as an adulteress. And so he resolves to divorce her quietly. Dr. William Hendrickson, the late Reformed Bible commentator, helpfully explains in his comments on this passage the significance of betrothal. He says, and I quote him, betrothal among the Jews must not be confused with present day engagement. It was far more serious and binding. The bridegroom and bride pledged their troth to each other in the presence of witnesses.

In a restricted sense, this was essentially the marriage. Yet though, he goes on to say, yet though the two were now legally, quote, espoused, they were pledged to be married, it was considered proper that an interval of time elapse before husband and wife begin to live together in the same home. Now it was before Joseph and Mary had begun thus to live together, with all this implies both as to domestic and sexual relations, that Mary discovered her pregnancy. She was still a virgin and not yet, quote, married in the full sense of the term. And so this is what’s going on here, and this is why, this is why it says that You know, Mary is described as his wife in this passage. Joseph is described as her husband. Joseph resolves to divorce her because this betrothal arrangement is a legally binding relationship.

And what occurs here? Well, it says this, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. She was found to be pregnant. And as Matthew explains, the cause of her pregnancy was not the natural, ordinary means of pregnancy. It was a supernatural in its origin. She was found with child from the Holy Spirit. And this occurred before they came together. Now what does that mean, before they came together? In other words, before they assumed full responsibilities as husband and wife, including conjugal relations, the one flesh reality. of the marriage. And I want to point out to you, brothers and sisters, not to go too far afield, but our Roman Catholic friends, one of the dogmas that the Roman Catholic Church teaches is the dogma of the perpetual virginity of Mary.

That after the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary lived together in an unconsummated marriage. And this is supposed to show the holiness and and complete consecration of Mary to God. It’s supposed to be a sign of her special holiness. But friends, contrary to the understanding of the Roman Catholic Church, which teaches this dogma of the perpetual virginity of Mary, the most natural interpretation of this phrase includes the implication that Mary and Joseph engaged in normal marital relations once Jesus had been born. Indeed, think about it, if Mary and Joseph, after the birth of Jesus, had lived together in an unconsummated marriage, then they would have been living in sin, since the marriage covenant implies that husband and wife are to give each other their conjugal rights, as the Apostle Paul makes very clear in 1 Corinthians 7, for example.

So indeed, friends, if this is the case, the perpetual virginity of Mary after the birth of Jesus would have meant perpetual sinning on Mary’s part. In other words, contrary to the Roman Catholic view that her perpetual virginity was a sign of her special holiness, Mary’s perpetual virginity would be a sign that she was living in unrepentant sin in the sense of denying Joseph his conjugal rights as her husband. But of course, this takes us very far afield. This is perhaps another sermon for another time. But getting back to our passage, before they came together, before they assumed normal marital relations, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. In other words, friends, our Lord Jesus Christ was not conceived in the ordinary, natural way. Rather, his origin and birth were supernatural and divine.

The agency of our Lord’s conception was not the seed of a man, but the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity. As we confess in the Apostles’ Creed, Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. As the church has historically confessed in the more detailed creed known as the Nicene Creed, our Lord was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man. Dear ones, all of this powerfully underscores the profound and sublime mystery of our Lord’s incarnation. Now, it goes on to say in verse 19, and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. It seems rather obvious, doesn’t it, friends, that either Joseph was not aware that Mary’s child was in fact conceived by the Holy Spirit, or Mary had tried to tell him, but naturally he did not believe her story.

And we would not blame him because that’s, naturally what we would expect. If there’s an unplanned pregnancy, there is the agency of a man involved. There must be, at least under natural circumstances. But nevertheless, Joseph’s deep love and affection for Mary is evident, for we are told here that Joseph was a just man and unwilling to put her to shame. In other words, he was a just man, he was a godly man, he was a principled man, he was a man who desired to please and honor the Lord and to live in obedience to the law of the Lord. And yet, he was also a gracious and compassionate man. When he saw, when it became obvious that his betrothed was pregnant, and he came to the natural, the understandable conclusion that, well, she must have been unfaithful to me, He didn’t want to pour vengeance upon her.

He didn’t want his pound of flesh for her. He didn’t want to shame her. He wanted to put her away quietly. He wanted to try to limit and constrain her shame. He was indeed a principled and godly man who wanted to do the right thing, but he was also a compassionate and merciful man who did not want to publicly shame his beloved Mary. And basically Joseph had two options open to him. Instead of instituting, he could have instituted a public lawsuit against Mary. And that would have brought great shame upon her. But instead of instituting a public lawsuit against Mary, which again would have brought public shame and scandal upon her, he instead resolved to quietly and privately give her a bill of divorcement. And as I understand it, a bill of divorcement back then only required two witnesses.

And so the effect of a bill of divorcement would have been to limit the scandal and to constrain the scandal and help to guard Mary’s public reputation. But all of this shows the messiness of the fallen world in which we live, but think about what this passage teaches us about the supernatural origin of Christ our Savior. This passage reveals to us that our Lord’s entrance into this world was supernatural in its origin. But oh, how glorious that our supernatural divine Lord was willing to enter into the messiness of this fallen, sin-cursed world, and was willing to do so in order to rescue us from our sins. Praise be to God. We learn next, as we move on in our passage, let’s consider next what our Lord’s supernatural origin teaches us about His person. It goes on to say in verse 20, But as he, as Joseph considered these things, as Joseph mauled this all over in his head, and no doubt he loved Mary, but he’s conflicted.

He wants to do the right thing. As he mauls this over, it says, as he considered these things, behold, behold, that means pay attention. This is important. An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife. And does that, don’t the words of the angel here indicate that Joseph’s heart’s desire, the desire of his heart was to take Mary as his wife. That was his heart’s desire. The angel saying, don’t fear to do that. Don’t fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. As he considered these things, I like how Dr. Hendrickson explains Joseph’s state of mind. Hendrickson writes, though Joseph has decided on the action he must take, he finds it almost impossible to make the transition from resolve to deed.

But then suddenly, suddenly, behold, as Joseph has drifted into a state of sleep, he receives a supernatural visitation from an angel sent from God. And the angel, praise God, clears up matters for Joseph by explaining to him that the child was not the product of immorality, but was in fact conceived by the Holy Spirit. Now the angelic revelation points to some very important truths about the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, it says that our Lord was indeed conceived in her. The angel says, Joseph, son of Mary, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. What’s the significance of that? Well this clearly implies that our Lord has a human nature which derived from the substance of the Virgin Mary.

Jesus had Mary’s genes In his body, he derived his human nature from Mary. And yet, we also learn here that Christ was conceived from the Holy Spirit. You see, Mary’s womb was not just an incubator for the divine Son of God. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, so that he has a full human nature, but also a full divine nature. Friends, this passage is one of many passages in the New Testament, indeed in all of Scripture, that supports the answer to our Shorter Catechism question and answer 22. If you’re interested in following along with that, that is found in page 969 in the back of your Psalter hymnal. The question is, how did Christ, being the Son of God, become man? How indeed did the eternal Son of God, the Word, the eternal Word, become man?

How did the Word become flesh? The Bible-based answer to that question is Christ, the Son of God, became man by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul. being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born of her, yet without sin. There’s a whole lot of truth packed into that catechism answer. But basically, Jesus Christ, my friends, is revealed in this passage and throughout the scriptures, he is revealed to be the God-man. He’s fully 100% God, fully 100% man, united in one divine person. conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. Well, Pastor, why is that so important to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the God-man? Why is it so important to affirm both his divine nature as well as his human nature in order to rightly understand him as our Savior?

Well friends, it’s important to believe in Jesus’ true and full humanity. Jesus Christ had a human body and a human soul, just as we are body souls. He’s not just a God-indwelt man, he is the God-man. He has a true human nature, for it is only as a man that the Savior could represent those for whom he died. We fell in the first Adam, original sin. We inherit a sin nature from Adam. Adam was the original God appointed representative, covenant head and representative of the human race. When Adam fell, we fell in solidarity with him, in union with him. We need a second Adam to represent us, to redeem us, and deliver us from the condition that we have fallen into through our covenantal union with the first Adam. And Jesus Christ, in his humanity, represents his people.

He represents us. And that’s why it’s so important for Jesus to be fully human. You know, one of the earliest heresies in the early church was not a heresy that denied the deity of Christ, but a heresy that denied the full humanity of Christ. The Gnostics denied the full humanity of Christ. They couldn’t imagine that the divine, eternal Christ would want to come and take upon himself filthy human flesh. They had sort of a Greek understanding, a Greek view of the material world as being somehow evil or dirty. But no, my friends, Jesus was fully human, true man, yet without sin. He did not inherit a sin nature, but he was fully man, but he was also fully God. And why was it important for the Christ, the Messiah, to be true God, fully God? because sin is so serious that only God has the power to save us from it.

And so it was requisite, it was necessary for the Christ to be both God and man united in one divine person. And that is what it means, among other things, to confess and believe in Jesus Christ, to believe that he is the promised Messiah and that he is the Word made flesh, that he is the God-man who came to represent us, to live for us, to die on the cross for our sins and to rise from the dead for us, that we who believe in him might not perish but have everlasting life. I want to just read before we get to the last point today, which we will get to briefly, I want to read from Romans chapter 10, verses 8 to 13. The Apostle Paul, in preaching the gospel in the book of Romans, he writes this.

He says, but what does it say? What does the scripture say? The word, that’s the word of faith, the word of the gospel, the good news of Jesus, the word is near you. In your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Look especially at verse nine, that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, Jesus, the man Jesus is the divine Lord. In order to rightly believe in and confess Jesus Christ, you must understand and acknowledge that the man Jesus is indeed the divine Lord. You may have a simple childlike faith in that truth, And you certainly don’t have to be a theologian to be a Christian, but basic to Christian belief, basic to saving faith is receiving and trusting in Christ as the God-man, Jesus as Lord, as God and as your Lord and Savior. Do you confess Jesus as your Lord? Do you believe that He died for your sins and rose from the dead? Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved as the Word of God teaches. But finally, beloved, consider from verse 21 what our Lord’s name reveals about his divine mission, what our Lord’s name reveals about his divine mission.

In the midst of this angelic revelation, as the angel is explaining to Joseph what’s going on, he says this. He says that Mary, his betrothed, will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. And then he explains why you shall call his name Jesus, why Joseph was instructed to name his son Jesus. And remember, Joseph, even though Joseph is not the natural father of Jesus, he is still going to be regarded as our Lord’s legal father. And that, by the way, is one of the reasons why in verse 20 the angel addresses Joseph as Joseph, son of David. This too underscores the fact that Jesus would be of the house and lineage of David, for Jesus’ legal father, Joseph, is a descendant of David as well. So why is he to be named Jesus?

Because he will save his people from their sins. Dear friends, Jesus Christ was sent by God the Father to this earth, not merely to be a great prophet of God, Nor was his mission merely to be a great sage or an insightful rabbi whose purpose was to bring about moral enlightenment or ethical reformation. Neither was Jesus a social reformer, nor a political revolutionary, nor a first century Jewish version of a hippie peacenik. No, beloved, his name is Jesus. In the Hebrew, it’s Yeshua or Yeshua. Joshua. And the name means the Lord is salvation. Children, you know what the name Jesus means? It means the Lord saves. He is called Jesus because He is sent to be our Savior. Yeshua, the Lord is salvation. As the angel reveals to Joseph, he is to be named Jesus, the Lord is salvation.

Why? For he will save his people from their sins. Children, those of you who know the shorter catechism, what is sin? It’s okay to speak it out. Sin is any want or lack of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. Sin is missing the mark. Sin is not loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and not loving your neighbor as yourself. And we have all sinned. No matter how long you’ve been a follower of Jesus Christ, no matter how godly and mature in the faith you are, you are still, and so am I, a sinner. We are justified by grace through faith in Christ. We are adopted as his children. Our sin has been atoned for and covered in Christ, and we’ve been clothed in his righteousness, and yet we still fall short.

And what does the Bible say the wages of sin is? Death, the wages of sin is death. The reason God did not create us to die, the reason we die is because we inherit a sin nature from Adam. And apart from the intervention of his grace, we would willfully and freely choose to live according to that sin nature. Sin is tremendously horrific. Sin separates us from fellowship and friendship with our creator. What we need more than anything else is salvation from sin, and that’s what God the Father sent Jesus to do, to be the savior from sin. He is Jesus. He is the Lord, is salvation. Again, the angel says, you’re to call him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins, not merely make salvation possible, but actually save his people from their sins, not he will save his people from the Romans.

Oh, the first century Jews hated the Romans. They were an occupying force in their land. They wanted to be rid of the reign of the Romans. But Jesus was not sent to save his people from the Romans, nor does it say he will save his people from political oppression, or from economic distress, or from poverty, or from hardship, or from disease, no. He will be a Messiah who saves his people from the greatest enemy that threatens us all, the enemy of sin. That three-letter word, sin, missing the mark, not being conformed to the perfect law of God. And the law of God, the moral law of God, is simply a revelation of God’s holy and righteous character. Dear listener, do you look to Jesus Christ as merely a great moral teacher, perhaps a great prophet, maybe your life coach, maybe a man who was a great religious instructor, a great rabbi, sort of like a Jewish version of a guru?

Or do you look to Him as your Savior from sin? The only Jesus there is, the real Jesus, is the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of history is the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus whose name means the Lord is salvation. The Jesus who came to save His people from their sins. Look to Him as your Savior from sin. That is why He came. Rest in Him. Amen. Let us pray. We thank you for Jesus Christ, and we do indeed believe in Jesus Christ, your only begotten son, our Lord. We ask that you would enable us and empower us to be deepened and strengthened in our faith in Christ, and help us to be faithful to proclaim the name of Jesus, that name which means the Lord is salvation, that others may come to know the Savior and believe upon him for the salvation of their souls.

In Jesus’ name we pray, and all of God’s people said. Amen. Let’s close our time today by rising and we’ll sing as our closing hymn number 492, How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds, 492, 492.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

November 19, 2023
Foundations of Faith: The Father Almighty

About this sermon

The Apostles’ Creed confesses God the Father Almighty, and Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, ‘Our Father in heaven.’ Only those united to Christ may call God Father, for to all who receive the Son God gives the right to become his children. The Father is exalted in heaven and holy, and the first petition asks that his name be hallowed in our lives and throughout the earth. Believers can call the Almighty their Father because Christ has made them his own.

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Sermon transcript

congregation, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. We continue this new series, this mini-series, based upon the Apostles’ Creed called The Foundations of Faith. And my sermon text today, as we use the Apostles’ Creed as a guide to our study and our consideration, our sermon text today is Matthew 6, verse 9. But in order to fill out the context a bit, I’m going to read Matthew 6, verses 5 through 15, but again our focus will be on verse 9 in particular, as we consider that God is the Father Almighty. Hear, my friends, the Word of God. The Lord Jesus, in the midst of His Sermon on the Mount, gives these instructions on prayer. Jesus says, And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others.

Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Dear friends, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for God to bless the proclamation of His Word. Gracious Heavenly Father, how thankful we are that in Christ we can address you as our loving and gracious Father in heaven. We pray, O Lord, that you would grant us at this time of exploring this portion of your word your fatherly mercies. We pray that you would illuminate, enlighten, and open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word. Help us, Lord, to be challenged, If necessary, rebuked, but help us also, Lord, to be encouraged and edified and built up in our most holy faith. And we ask that you would grant unto me, your unworthy servant, the grace to declare and speak forth your word with clarity and power for the salvation of the lost, the edification of your people, and the glory of the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior.

For it is in his name that we pray and all of God’s people said. Amen. Congregation, you may be seated. Well, dear friends, the title of my sermon today, as you see in your bulletin, is Foundations of Faith, the Father Almighty. One of the things that the church has historically confessed in the Apostles’ Creed is, I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. And you’ll see if you’re following along in your sermon outline, there’s a number of key words that the children can be listening for in my sermon to help them follow along. The words Father, Grace, Exalted, Holy, Adoption, Faith, and Prayer. Well, dear friends, in the Word of God, the Bible, God reveals himself and his character, his attributes, in many different ways. For example, the scriptures indicate to us that God reveals himself through his mighty works, such as his mighty works of creation.

We are told in scripture, for example, that the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows forth his handiwork. We are told in the scriptures that God reveals himself through his mighty works of providence as he sustains and governs all creatures and all the heavens and the earth. And especially God reveals himself through his mighty acts of salvation. But friends, not only does God reveal himself through his mighty acts, his mighty works, he also reveals himself in scripture through his divine names and titles. And that is why in the prayers that are recorded for us in Holy Scripture, we often find believers in their prayers addressing God in numerous different ways. And just to give you some examples, remember when the patriarch Abraham is pleading with the Lord for him to spare the city of Sodom.

As Abraham is interceding before the Lord for God to spare Sodom for the sake of even just a few righteous persons. What does Abraham say to God? How does he address God? He addresses God, according to Genesis 18, verse 25, as the judge of all the earth. And so Abraham pleads with the Lord, will not the judge of all the earth do what is just? Likewise, in Psalm 94, verse 1, our righteous and just and holy God is addressed as, O Yahweh, God of vengeance. particular psalm, he is addressed as the God of vengeance because God promises to avenge his people against their wicked and cruel enemies who oppress and afflict and crush them. But on a more tender note, in Psalm 91, verse 2, the psalmist addresses the Lord as my refuge and my fortress.

And many other examples of biblical titles and descriptions could also be mentioned. I’m sure we’re all familiar with how the Lord is addressed in Psalm 23, verse one. The Lord is what? The Lord is my shepherd. Or consider Psalm 27, verse one, where God is addressed as my light and my salvation. Or Psalm 46, verse one, where God is addressed as our refuge and strength. In Psalm 57, verse 2, He is addressed as God Most High. In Psalm 62, verse 2, He is addressed as my rock and my salvation, my fortress. In Psalm 81, verse 1, He is addressed as God, our strength. In Psalm 88, verse 1, O Lord, God of my salvation. In Psalm 90, verse 1, the prayer of Moses, the man of God. Moses addresses God as our dwelling place. in all generations.

Psalm 109 verse 1, O God of my praise. In Psalm 136, verses one and two, God is referred to as the God of gods and the Lord of lords because he is the one true and living God, the only Lord of heaven and earth. In Psalm 144, verse one, the psalmist addresses God as my rock and then he goes on in verse two to address God as my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge. Don’t you just love the Psalms and how personal and intimate the Psalmists are in their prayers and praises to God? The final example I will mention is Psalm 145, verse 1, which is a praise of King David. And in that praise, David, the king of Israel, addresses God as my God and king, thereby recognizing that though he is the God-ordained king of Israel, there is a king who is higher than him.

And of course, many other examples could be offered. But friends, while these are all legitimate and valid ways of addressing our God in prayer and in praise, and while we can certainly take instruction from these various ascriptions and titles of God, we can take instruction for our own prayer lives from those biblical prayers. Nevertheless, for the believer in Christ, probably the most meaningful, the most intimate, the most personal way to address God is as father. As our Lord Jesus Christ has taught his church to pray in this model prayer, which is known today as the Lord’s Prayer, we as Christ’s disciples address God as our Father in heaven, or to use the more archaic language, our Father who art in heaven. Now as it’s always important to understand texts of scripture within their broader context, let’s do that for a few moments right now.

Here we find our Lord Jesus giving this instruction in prayer, and here Matthew’s record of our Lord’s instructions to his disciples on prayer is found within the broader context of our Lord’s so-called Sermon on the Mount. This is called the Sermon on the Mount because we are told at the beginning of Matthew chapter five that Jesus delivered this particular sermon from a mountain. Just as Moses went up on Mount Sinai to receive the law of God and God spoke to the people from Mount Sinai, so now the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate, ascends a mountain to address his people. to address his disciples. This so-called Sermon on the Mount here is a major block of Jesus’ teaching which is recorded in chapters 5 through 7 here in Matthew’s Gospel. This so-called Sermon on the Mount is the first of five major discourses or blocks of Jesus’ teaching materials which are recorded in Matthew’s Gospel account.

Of course, Jesus’ teaching is found throughout Matthew’s gospel account, but there are five particular teaching blocks or blocks of teaching material that are found in Matthew’s gospel. For example, chapters five through seven, the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 10, Matthew chapter 13, Matthew chapter 18, and finally, Matthew 24 and 25, the Olivet Discourse as recorded by Matthew. Now Matthew’s record of our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount is very likely a summary version of what Jesus actually taught on this particular occasion. In other words, friends, what we have here in the Sermon on the Mount, as recorded by Matthew, is probably a condensed version of what Jesus actually said. And Matthew’s giving us a summary account. So Jesus probably preached a lot longer than what we find here in Matthew 5-7. And also, I should mention as an aside, we should keep in mind that like other itinerant Jewish rabbis of the time, our Lord Jesus very likely gave this teaching on multiple different occasions and with slight variations in wording or form or content depending upon the different audiences that he was addressing.

And by the way, I mention that because… If you’ve ever had a conversation with Bible skeptics or critics of the Bible, they’ll often point out variations in wording between the Gospels. They’ll look at the Sermon on the Mount, for example, and the wording of Jesus’ teachings in this Sermon on the Mount, and they’ll compare it to Luke’s account of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain, which contains similar teachings here, but in slightly varied form. And they’ll say, see, there’s contradictions. Jesus doesn’t say things in exactly the same way. Well, duh. The reason for that, I mean, any good teacher or preacher or anyone who is an educator and seeks to educate in certain materials will adjust their materials depending upon their audience. Jesus didn’t just teach this stuff on one occasion. He taught these things over and over again to different audiences on different occasions.

And so there are no contradictions here in the Scriptures, my friends, because Jesus, again, would have given this kind of teaching on multiple different occasions. But in any case, getting back to our passage for today and the Sermon on the Mount, How are we to view this Sermon on the Mount and our Lord’s teaching on prayer here within this Sermon on the Mount? Well, I think that the Bible commentator, R.E. Nixon, has some helpful words when he introduces the Sermon on the Mount. He says, it is natural to see Jesus as the new Moses delivering the new Torah or law with a new authority. But it is not a new legalism, despite the emphasis on the importance of law and the dangers of antinomianism. As Jesus said in Matthew 5, verses 17 to 20, I have not come to do away with the law and the prophets.

I’m not here to reject or do away with the Old Testament, but rather I came to fulfill. the law and the prophets. Nixon goes on to say, the real criticism is not directed against the Old Testament law, but against the rabbinic interpretation of it. And then he goes on to say that the kingdom ethic of Jesus that is revealed in the Sermon on the Mount, quote, can be attempted only by the man who has responded to the challenge of the kingdom presented by Jesus and who seeks to obey on the basis of grace. The perfection demanded, remember Jesus in Matthew 5, 48 says, be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. And we look at that and say, who can do that? Well, as Nixon points out, the perfection demanded does not mean that there is a double standard, but that the new life of sonship in Christ is the only basis on which the principles set out are in any way attainable.

In other words, it is only in union with Christ that we can even begin to live out the kingdom ethic that is revealed by our Lord Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. And what does that have to do with his instructions on prayer? Well, friends, this new life of sonship in Christ, which is necessary for living out the kingdom ethic that our Lord here reveals in his Sermon on the Mount, is underscored by our Lord’s instructions on how his disciples should pray and address God as their Father in heaven. And that leads me to my first main point, if you’re following along in your outline. As Jesus gives these instructions in prayer, Jesus then reveals this model prayer, which is called the Lord’s Prayer. And he says this in verse nine, pray then like this, our Father in heaven, that’s the preface, to the Lord’s Prayer, our Father in heaven, and then the first petition, hallowed be your name.

Now we can learn many things from this statement, but I first of all want to start off with something that might be a little bit controversial, might step on a few toes, I hope not, but it needs to be said. And that is, first of all, friends, this is the first point in your outline. Followers of Jesus can address God as Father only because they are children of God who have been adopted by grace. Followers of Jesus can address God as Father only because they are children of God who have been adopted by grace. Well, what’s controversial about that, Pastor Jeff? Well, think about the opposite of that. You see, friends, we must reject as a false teaching the modernist, the theologically progressive notion of the so-called universal fatherhood of God and universal brotherhood of man.

This was a very common teaching back in the late 1800s, early 1900s with theological liberalism, but it’s also a very common teaching today. The idea that everybody without exception, whether you’re a Christian or not, whether you’re saved or unsaved, whether you are repentant or unrepentant, the idea that everybody without exception is a child of God and therefore that God is everybody’s Heavenly Father is of course a very commonly held belief today, and in many contexts today, many social contexts, if you dare to question the idea that everybody’s a child of God and everybody has God as their father and can address God as their father, to question that in many contexts would really get you labeled as, well, that guy’s a jerk. I mean, he doesn’t believe that everyone is a child of God. What kind of nonsense does he believe?

But friends, this belief in the universal fatherhood of God is a deeply unbiblical belief, and as we will see in a few minutes, Jesus Christ himself rejected the notion of the universal fatherhood of God. Now, let me make a clarification. In a general sense, a generic sense, we might say that everyone is a child of God by creation if we mean by that that every person has been created in the image of God and therefore every person has worth and value. Certainly the Bible teaches that. Everybody bears the image of God, though in our fallen condition, it is a distorted and fallen and besmirched image, but nevertheless, everyone still bears at some level and in some sense, the image of God, and therefore, everyone, we are to love our neighbor and seek to do good to all, whether they be Christian or not.

But nevertheless, the Bible makes it clear that not everyone is a child of God in the deepest spiritual saving sense of that term. Indeed, the Word of God teaches that only true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are children of God who have the right to address God as Father. Even though God created us in his image, he created us good in his image, in Adam’s fall, we fell with him, in solidarity with him. He was our original covenant head and representative. And when he fell, we fell in him. And so in Adam’s fall, the image of God in man has been distorted and all but destroyed. There are but some faint glimmers of it. And in our fallen condition, We are said in scripture to be Satan’s slaves, to be polluted and guilty sinners.

Indeed, we are called traitors against our creator. We are guilty of cosmic treason against our infinitely holy creator. We also need to remember, as I already pointed out, but again, I would emphasize it again, we need to remember that in the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord is addressing his disciples, his professed followers in this Sermon on the Mount, which is why some have suggested, correctly in my view, that the so-called Lord’s Prayer is more accurately described as the disciples’ prayer. This is a prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, his followers, those who repent and believe in him and seek to live out the implications of that repentance and faith in their lives. This is the disciple’s prayer. So non-Christians and heretics and the unrepentant have no right to pray this prayer, for God is not a heavenly father to those who are apart from a saving union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Instead, Jesus taught that it is in fact Satan who is the spiritual father of those who are apart from a saving relationship with Christ. It was providential that this morning in our morning instruction, Elder Gidley, read this passage that I’m gonna read again, part of it at least, where Jesus makes that very clear. Let’s turn to John chapter eight and look at verses 41 to 44. John chapter eight, verses 41 to 44. The Lord Jesus is having a conversation, or more like a dispute, a debate, with some of the Jewish leaders who were his enemies. And we read the following in verses 41 through 44. Jesus says to his enemies, he says, you are doing the works your father did. They said to him, we have not been, we were not born of sexual immorality.

That was the common accusation against the Lord Jesus, obviously because of the virgin birth. He had no human father. We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one father, even God. Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. And then notice especially verse 44, Jesus addressing these sworn enemies of his, Jesus says, you are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him,” and so forth. And so Jesus makes it very clear that those who are his enemies, those who have rejected him, are not his children.

Dear listener, If you, through God’s sovereign, omnipotent grace, have become a citizen of God’s kingdom by putting your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your very own Savior and Lord, then praise be to God, you are an adopted, blood-bought child of God, and you have been granted by grace the right to address God as your Father in heaven. But dear listener, if you reject Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Messiah, as your Savior, that until such time as you repent and believe in Christ, you have no right to address God as your father in heaven. For at this point in time, he is not your gracious father, but he is rather an angry, offended holy judge, your sin is offensive and odious to your creator. Now God is good, he is kind, he is patient, he’s long-suffering, he showers his goodness and blessings upon believers and unbelievers alike.

He gives believers and unbelievers the sunshine and the rain and every good and perfect gift because he is a good God, he’s a kind God. And in the gospel of Jesus Christ, he offers to you full and free forgiveness and salvation. if you would but through sovereign grace believe and repent in him. But until that time, God is not your father, the devil is. And you must repent and believe if you would be able to call God your father in heaven. And I just wanna have us turn to a few other scripture passages that underscore this truth, that it is only believers who have God as their Heavenly Father. Let’s look, for example, at 1 John 3 1. 1 John 3 1. The Apostle John, again, he’s writing to Christians, he’s writing to believers, and he says, see what kind of love the Father has given to us, us meaning us believers, not us meaning everyone without exception.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And so we are. We believers are called children of God, not because we are better than unbelievers or more worthy, but because God has been kind and merciful to us in Christ. And he goes on to say, the reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Consider also the gospel of John, John 1 9-13. John 1 9-13. The opening prologue of John’s marvelous gospel, John writes this. of the Lord Jesus. He says, the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. That refers to our Lord’s incarnation. He came as a witness, I’m sorry, I skipped back, verse 10. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

In the person of Christ, God has visited us, and yet the world did not know him, did not recognize him. He came to His own, that would be the Jewish people who ought to have recognized Him from their own scriptures. He came to His own and His own people did not receive Him. But hear this, to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Receive Jesus Christ today by faith, and you will have the right to call God your Heavenly Father, because you will be a child of God by His grace and grace alone. Or consider what the Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 4, verses four through seven, Galatians chapter four, verses four through seven.

Paul writes, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive what? Adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir. through God, praise be to God. And so beloved, the negative is that God is not the father of everyone in the spiritual saving sense of that term, though the gospel offers grace to all who would repent and believe. But the good news on the positive side is that God is indeed a loving father to us, his redeemed children. Did you notice how many times in the context of this passage that Jesus refers to God as father, as the father of his disciples?

I mean, look back at verse six. Jesus says, but when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to what? To whom? To your father who is in secret. And then he goes on to say, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. Or skip down to verse eight. Jesus says, do not be like them. Do not be like the Gentiles who think that they can get God’s attention by their babbling and keeping up many, many words. Do not be like them, for whom your father knows what you need before you ask him. Or skip down to verse nine. Our Father in heaven. Skip down to verse 14. If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Verse 15, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Jesus hammers it home again and again and again. Dear disciple, dear follower of Jesus, dear child of God, God is your loving heavenly Father. So dear listener, let me ask you today, is God your heavenly Father? Are you a redeemed, adopted child of God? Have you received and rested upon Christ and Christ alone as your Savior and Lord? Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin. And his sacrifice is fully sufficient for all of the sins of all those who by grace come in faith to him. And Jesus welcomes all who would come. Jesus says, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. And the father physically and bodily raised Jesus from the dead on the third day, proving that he had accepted the Lord’s sacrifice.

Repent of your sin, believe in Christ, and you will be a child of God who has the privilege of addressing God as father. But in the two final points I want to make, they’ll be brief points, I assure you. Yes, God is the loving Heavenly Father of those who by grace come to believe in Him. But notice next that God is an exalted Father. How does Jesus instruct us, His disciples, to pray? He says, pray then like this. Our Father, does He stop there? Our Father in Heaven. Heaven being the place of God’s exaltation, not just the heavens up in the galaxies and the stars and outer space. He’s talking about the heavenly realm, our father in heaven. While our God is indeed a loving, gracious, merciful father to his redeemed, blood-bought, adopted children in Christ, he is nevertheless an exalted, holy, heavenly father.

In other words, friends, God is not the man upstairs, as He is sometimes irreverently referred to. I’ve even heard Christians professing, Bible-believing Christians at times refer to God like that. He’s not just, He’s not the man upstairs. He’s not the big daddy-o in the sky. Believer, He’s not your chum. He’s not your pal. He’s not your buddy. He’s your Father in heaven. infinitely exalted, glorious and majestic in his holiness, transcendent in his being and perfections. So while in his amazing, overwhelming grace, God in heaven has invited us as his beloved blood-bought children, his adopted children through Christ, he has invited us to enjoy deep and intimate and personal communion and fellowship and friendship with him in our prayers and in our praises. Let us also remember to approach him appropriately with an attitude of holy reverence and awe, not with a casual attitude of indifference and shallow impiety.

You know, we live in an uber casual age, an age where we’re just so casual about everything. we must not be casual in our approach to God in worship. Yes, we can come with confidence before God because of what Christ has done for us, but we must also come with reverence before God. After all, friends, our gracious Heavenly Father is also a God of infinite white-hot holiness. He is a God who is a consuming fire, a consuming fire who intends to burn away all that which is unholy in us with the heat of his holiness. A consuming fire who will also burn up those who remain unrepentant in their wickedness. He will burn them up in his holy wrath on judgment day. As we are taught in our shorter catechism in question 100, the question is, what doth the preface of the Lord’s Prayer teach us?

The Bible-based answer to that question. The preface of the Lord’s Prayer, which is, our Father which art in heaven, teacheth us to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence as children to a Father, able and ready to help us, and that we should pray with and for others. I love the way that the Westminster Divines answer that question. They say, that the preface teaches us to draw near to God, not just with all holy reverence, not just with confidence, but with reverence and confidence. We can come with confidence and boldness before the throne of grace because Jesus, our great high priest, died for our sins and has clothed us in his perfect everlasting righteousness. But we must also come with reverence because he is our father in heaven. And that leads me to my final point.

God is not only our loving Father, whom we as His children have the privilege of addressing as our Father, He is not only an exalted Father, God is a holy Father, as reflected in the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus says, pray then like this, our Father in heaven, gimme, gimme, gimme. Heavenly Father, I need this, I need that, here’s my laundry list. Now certainly there’s a place for praying for our daily needs and wants and desires, but the first thing Jesus says we are to pray for is, Lord, hallowed be your name. What does that mean? What do we mean when we pray for God to hallow his name? To hallow means to make holy, to treat as holy, as set apart, as glorious. God is holy and holiness is the opposite of that which is common.

One commentator puts it like this, that this petition means, quote, not just that God’s creatures may keep it holy, but that God may himself hallow it by being the holy judge and savior. Another commentator says that the concern of this first petition is that God’s name would be hallowed, that God would be treated with the highest honor and set apart as holy. Again, I think the words of our shorter catechism are very telling. In question 101, it asks, what do we pray for in the first petition? Again, the Bible-based answer to that question. In the first petition, which is, hallowed be thy name, we pray that God would enable us and others to glorify him in all that whereby he maketh himself known, and that he would dispose all things to his own glory. If we are children of God, the deepest desire of our heart ought to be to see God honored in our own lives and in the lives of our loved ones, our neighbors, our friends, our family, indeed, over all the earth.

Our heavenly Father, our exalted Father, is a holy Father, and as His children, we should desire to hallow His holy name. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. That truth, that confession of faith in God, the Father Almighty, is a vital foundational belief of our holy Christian faith. Let us, brothers and sisters, praise God that in Christ our Savior, we can call him Father, for he is indeed our Father in heaven. Let us pray. Gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you and praise you that you’ve loved us to such an extent that you gave your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption and salvation. And we thank you that by your grace, you have drawn us through your spirit with the cords of love unto faith in Christ, enabling us to embrace him, to receive and rest upon him alone as our savior from sin.

We would pray, Heavenly Father, that you would take these truths and burn them into our souls this day. And may we, Heavenly Father, experience in our lives your fatherly goodness and kindness, grace and mercy. In Jesus’ name we pray and all of God’s people said, amen. As we close our time of worship today, let’s rise and we’ll sing hymn number 242, Father Long Before Creation, 242.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

October 8, 2023
Foundations of Faith: Our Trinitarian Confession

About this sermon

Judaism, Islam, and Unitarian sects also confess one God, and the Trinity sets the Christian faith apart. The risen Christ receives all authority in heaven and on earth, and he commands his church to baptize the nations into the one name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The triune God is at work in creation, providence, and salvation, and Christian worship and prayer rise to the Father through the Son by the Spirit. Baptism places believers under the authority and covenant protection of the triune God.

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Sermon transcript

The Gospel of Matthew, at the very end of the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 28, verses 16 through 20, a passage that is typically referred to as the Great Commission. Remember the setting, Jesus has risen from the dead, but this is before his ascension into heaven, and our Lord addresses his disciples in Galilee. Hear the word of God. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped 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. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless. the preaching of his word. Heavenly Father, we do ask that by your Holy Spirit, you would once again open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word. We pray that you would encourage us, that you would feed our souls, that you would challenge us. If necessary, rebuke us, Lord. We pray that we might be strengthened by what we hear today, and we ask that you would set a guard over my lips, that I might speak only that which is faithful to your Holy Word. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said.

Amen. You may be seated. Well, dear ones, the title of my sermon this morning is Foundations of Faith, Our Trinitarian Confession. And if you’re following along in your sermon outline, I would again direct your attention to a number of words that you can be listening for in the sermon, if that helps you follow along. I especially wanna highlight the words trinity, monotheism, salvation, and foundation. Well, dear ones, as many of you know, I recently began a new sermon series in which we are reviewing the biblical foundations of our holy Christian faith, a series in which we are being guided by the Bible-based affirmations of that classical ecumenical creed of the historic Christian church known as the Apostles’ Creed. And it’s called the Apostles’ Creed not because it was penned by the apostles, it is an ancient creed, a baptismal creed, but it is a creed that nevertheless reflects the teachings of the apostles that are revealed to us in the New Testament scriptures, and hence it is called the Apostles’ Creed.

And it’s important for us periodically from time to time to go back and review the basics of our faith and to remind ourselves again, what is it that I believe? Why do I believe it? And why are these things important to me as a Christian and to us as a Christian church? Now, friends, on the last Lord’s Day, we consider the very first affirmation of the Apostles’ Creed, namely the affirmation, I believe in God. And we grounded and based that affirmation upon a very foundational text of Scripture, namely Genesis 1, verses 1-3. You’re all familiar with Genesis 1-1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now, as I pointed out on the last Lord’s Day, Absolutely nothing is more foundational, more fundamental, more central to our holy Christian faith than the existence of the true and living God who is revealed to us in the pages of His inspired Word, the Bible.

Based on our study of that Genesis passage last week, we saw that the true and living God is an eternal being. He is beyond time, space, or matter. He’s transcendent, so He’s eternal, that He is a self-existent being, and also that He is a necessary being. We learned on the last Lord’s Day that without the true and living God revealed in Holy Scripture, there would be nothing else. And without God, there is no sound basis for human logic or reason, since God himself is the necessary prerequisite or precondition for all human intelligibility. Human logic is and must be grounded upon the divine logos. the divine living word who is Christ himself, the word made flesh. And so again, we consider the importance of the existence of the true and living God. However, friends, as you probably know, historic biblical Christianity is not the only faith system out there that acknowledges the existence of one true God.

That is to say, Christianity is not the only religion out there in the world, the only faith system that can be described as affirming what has been called ethical monotheism. Certainly traditional and orthodox Judaism, traditionalist Islam and other Unitarian sects and religions also affirm and believe in only one God, thereby affirming the principle of ethical monotheism. But dear ones, the difference between historic Christianity and these other systems of ethical monotheism is of course what? The doctrine of the Trinity. Beloved, as Christians, we are not mere theists or mere monotheists, we are rather Trinitarian monotheists. Yes, we are monotheists, we believe in only one true God, but we are Trinitarian monotheists as opposed to being Unitarian monotheists. And that’s incredibly important. to our faith. In fact, the doctrine of the Trinity is so foundational to our faith that even this brief, bare-bones creed known to us today as the Apostles’ Creed is arranged in a three-fold division that affirms the three persons of the Holy Trinity and the biblical truths that are typically connected with each of these persons.

In other words, the way that the Apostles’ Creed, which is this very basic, bare-bones creed, the way the creed is structured is in accordance with the three persons of the Trinity. And so, for example, the first division of the Apostles’ Creed is headed by the statement or affirmation, I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. There’s the first person of the Holy Trinity, God the Father. The second division is headed, of course, by The affirmation, I believe in what? I believe in Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, our Lord. There’s the eternal second person of the Trinity, the eternal son of God. And of course, the third division is headed by the affirmation, I believe in the Holy Spirit, referencing the third person of the Holy Trinity. Dear ones, what this means is that not only is the God in whom we believe and who we confess an eternal being, not only is He a self-existent being, not only is He a necessary being, He is also unavoidably a Trinitarian or triune being.

In fact, from the standpoint of God’s Holy Word, Any so-called monotheistic God who is not also the triune God revealed in the pages of scripture is not actually the true and living God. The God of Unitarian monotheism, in whatever form that Unitarian monotheism takes, is not the same God that we worship. Well, but Pastor, the Trinity wasn’t revealed in the Old Testament Scriptures. Are you saying that, well, actually the Trinity is revealed in the Old Testament Scriptures? It’s revealed in seed form. It is there by implication. The details of the doctrine of the Trinity are, of course, expressed more directly and explicitly in the New Testament Scriptures, and it’s more understandable now to God’s people with the coming of Christ. But the Trinity is throughout the Scriptures in both Old Testament and New Testament. Now, just by way of review before we dive into our text for today, what do we mean when we talk about the Trinity?

What is the Trinity? Well, the Trinity is the affirmation, the doctrine that says that there is only one true God. We are not tritheists. We do not worship three gods. There’s not one God who’s divided up into three different parts. Each person of the Trinity is fully A 100% God shares fully in the one divine being or essence. But this one eternal God exists eternally in three co-equal, co-eternal persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And it’s when we make a definition like this or express this definition that many scratch their heads and say, that’s confusing. And to which I say, duh, yeah, it is confusing because we’re talking about the infinite God. We cannot fully comprehend or wrap our brains around this truth, but we believe it because God’s word reveals it.

I like how our larger catechism, our Westminster larger catechism defines the Trinity. The question is, question nine, how many persons are there in the Godhead? The Bible-based answer of our larger catechism is this. There be three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one true eternal God, the same in substance, which is an old-fashioned way of saying essence or being, the same in substance, equal in power and glory, although distinguished by their personal properties. So there is one true and living God who exists eternally in three divine, co-equal, co-eternal persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, as we dive into our text for today, the first thing I want to point out is that the truth of the Trinity is foundational to the church’s faith and mission in the world.

The truth of the Trinity is absolutely foundational to the church’s faith and mission in the world. Now our passage for this morning is Matthew’s record of our Lord’s so-called Great Commission. In other words, our resurrected Lord Jesus’ marching orders to his church, the divine commission which defines the church’s mission and calling in this present age of redemptive history, this age between our Lord’s first advent and his future glorious second advent. Jesus is telling us what we as the church are to be about the business of doing while we await His second coming. In this passage, that is what He’s instructing us in. Let me just point out, it’s not our Lord’s main purpose in this passage to give us a detailed teachings on the doctrine of the Trinity or what have you, but nevertheless, the foundational centrality of the doctrine of the Trinity is revealed here in Christ’s great commission by the fact that the covenant sign of initiation into the church, the covenant sign of initiation into Christ’s community of discipleship, for that is what the church is.

What is that? Sign of initiation, it is baptism into the triune name of Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Notice again what Jesus says to his disciples. He says in verse 19, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, all ethnic group, ethne, ethne is the Greek, make disciples of all nations. baptizing them in the name, notice it’s not the names, plural, but the singular name. There’s one God, one being, the name of the Father and of the Son. and of the Holy Spirit. Now again, let’s remember the setting and context of this passage. This is post-resurrection but pre-ascension. Christ has been raised from the dead, the tomb is empty, Jesus is alive from the dead, and he’s already appeared a number of times to his apostles and to others as well.

And he now appears to the 11 and perhaps to some others as well in Galilee. Look at verse 16, it says, now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. Why did they go to Galilee? Well, they went to Galilee because the angel at the Lord’s empty tomb had told them that they would see Jesus in Galilee. If you go back to verse seven here in Matthew 28, At the scene of the empty tomb, the angel says, then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead and behold, he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him. See, I have told you. So that’s why they head to Galilee. And it is perhaps here at Galilee that Jesus not only appears to these 11 disciples, but perhaps this was also the scene, the occasion where Jesus appeared to more than 500 of his broader group of followers at once.

The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, I believe verse eight, says that after Jesus rose from the dead, of course he appeared to his apostles on numerous occasions, over a period of 40 days, but on one occasion, he appeared as the resurrected Lord in his resurrection body. He appeared to more than 500 of his followers at one time. And when Paul wrote that statement in 1 Corinthians 15, at that particular time, most of these eyewitnesses to the resurrected Jesus were still alive, though some had died, Paul says. But there were multiple eyewitnesses to the resurrected. Lord Jesus Christ, and so perhaps this was the occasion where that occurred. But be that as it may, the 11 disciples go to Galilee, they go to this mountain to which Jesus directed them, and it says in verse 17, when they saw him, they worshiped him.

They worshiped him. But then Matthew adds an interesting side note. But some doubted. Now the scholars have a field day trying to decide who are the some that doubted. Is he saying that some of these 11 who had already probably seen Jesus a number of times in terms of post-resurrection appearances, that some of them doubted? Or is Matthew referencing some of the broader disciples of Jesus who may have also been present, initially doubting because perhaps they didn’t know, is this really Jesus or not? Perhaps they doubted at first because they weren’t close enough to see him clearly. But however we may understand this statement that some doubted, it’s a very honest statement. You see, what’s important about this this statement is that it’s a detail that helps to support the historical trustworthiness of this account.

Think about it, if Matthew’s gospel indeed, if the gospel accounts are mere religious propaganda and mythology as the skeptics and the atheists and the critical rationalist Bible scholars would have us believe, then certainly details like this that might throw, make the disciples appear in a bad light, certainly Matthew wouldn’t want to include such details. But the fact that Matthew includes this potentially negative assessment of the 11 disciples or other disciples of Jesus on that occasion shows that Matthew is interested not in promoting propaganda, but in telling the truth. And how true to human nature is this? How true to human nature is this? It is true to our fallen nature to have sinful doubt even when the truth of God and even when the Son of God is staring you in the face. And so, I think again, this is testimony, this statement is testimony to Matthew’s honesty and to the Spirit’s inspiration of this passage.

But then again, it goes on in verse 18. It says, Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Now let’s pause there. Ask yourself the question, didn’t Jesus as the eternal Son of God, the divine Son of God, didn’t he already have all authority in heaven and on earth? Why then does he speak of the Father giving him all authority in heaven and on earth at this particular occasion? Well, we need to understand that yes, in his divine nature, Jesus has always had all authority in heaven and on earth. But Jesus in his incarnation is the God-man, the Word made flesh, Emmanuel, God with us. the theanthropos, as the theologians call it. So in his post-resurrection state, there are no longer any limitations upon our Lord’s exercise of his universal divine authority.

Remember that during his earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus chose to limit the exercise of some of his divine attributes on many occasions, but now with his post-resurrection state, all authority has been given to him as the God-man, as the mediator, as the Messiah. And so, though Jesus as the divine Son of God is indeed equal with the Father with respect to his deity, yet as the God-man, he submits to the Father and in a sense is given his authority by the Father. And what this means, brothers and sisters, is that Jesus as the Messiah, as the God-man, reigns over the entire universe. All authority has been given in heaven and on earth to him. Jesus rules the furthest galaxies, the furthest stars, and he rules at the microscopic level down to the smallest microscopic particle. all authority has been given to him by the Father.

And then verse 19, we have this commission. Jesus says, look, I’m able to give this commission, I’m able, I have the authority to order and command my church, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, teaching them, and so forth. Dr. William Hendrickson points out that this literally in the original says, having gone therefore make disciples. The imperative in this passage is to make disciples. And that is the central focus of the mission that the resurrected Lord Jesus assigns to his church. What are we to be about the business of doing? Are we to be about the business of changing political laws or being culture warriors or social justice warriors? No. Our business as a church is to be about the business of making disciples. That is what we are commanded to do.

The other participles in this commission, the participles going, baptizing, and teaching, simply describe different aspects in the process of disciple making. And these participles do have an imperatival force to them. You know, he’s not just saying, well, as you go along, make disciples and baptize. He’s saying, go, make disciples, baptize, teach. There’s an imperatival force to all of this. But all of this should raise the question in your mind, okay, okay, we’re supposed to go make disciples. What is a disciple? Well, children, many of you are disciples with respect to your education. Raise your hand if you’re a student. A disciple is basically a pupil, a learner, a student. And if you are a disciple of Jesus, that means you have been enrolled in the school of Christ. You learn of Jesus so that you may live for Jesus.

You learn about Jesus so that you may, in faith, be a follower of the Lord Jesus. So a disciple is essentially a pupil, a learner. Through baptism and conversion, we are enrolled as students in the school of Christ, the church where we learn how to be followers of Jesus. And what is the extent of this commission? Well, Jesus says, make disciples of all nations. The Greek word is taethne. Ethne is the word from which we derive the word ethnic. And the nations here does not merely mean political entities. When we think of nations today, we tend to think of, well, there’s Brazil, there’s Australia, there’s China, there’s Spain, there’s South Africa, and what have you. But no, what Jesus means is all people groups. Here in our nation, the United States of America, there are multiple ethnic groups, multiple nations within our political entity known as the United States.

So this encompasses all people groups, not just all political entities. It includes Gentiles as well as Jews in fulfillment of God’s covenant promises to Abraham. as expressed in passages like Genesis 12.3 and 17.5. You see, friends, with the resurrection of Christ and his ascension into heaven to the reign at the right hand of God the Father, God’s covenant promise to Abraham that all the nations would be blessed in him, that promise would begin to be fulfilled on a worldwide scale. And the past 2,000 years of church history is demonstration of that fact. Now in the Old Testament there was a sort of a narrowing of God’s saving grace. The narrowing of God’s saving grace and covenant mercies in Old Covenant times and under the Mosaic administration when grace was mostly limited to the Jews, that was ultimately to be in service to the eventual expansion of the covenant to all nations with the coming of Jesus the Messiah and with his call to the church to take the gospel to all the nations.

No longer was the Savior’s mission to be limited to the lost sheep of the house of Israel as it was during his earthly ministry. As Matthew himself records, I believe in Matthew 10, Jesus says, I must go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That’s what his focus was during his earthly ministry. But now with the resurrection from the dead, the gospel is to go to the nations, to the Gentiles. The Gentiles too were to hear the glad tidings of great joy. And that’s why we’re here today. because we by grace have heard the glad tidings of great joy. So we are to make disciples, but how are disciples to be made? Well, we are told in verses 19 through 20, Jesus mentions baptizing them in the name of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

Disciples are made through two means, by means of baptism and teaching. Another way of saying this is through the word and sacrament ministry of the church. Baptism, of course, is the covenant sign of initiation into the covenant of grace. Trinitarian baptism is a sign and seal of being brought under the authority and lordship and protection of the triune God. And what is to be taught to these who are being discipled, to disciples, the baptized? What is to be taught? Jesus says, teaching them to observe Some of the things that I have commanded you? No, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Not just teaching a few essentials, but teaching the whole counsel of God, in other words. Disciples of Jesus are to be taught to observe all that I have commanded you, as Jesus says.

Here our Lord Jesus speaks. The argument can be made that Matthew is presenting the risen Lord Jesus here as the new and final Moses. I mean, think about it. Moses was the mediator of the old covenant, and he was the great prophet of the old covenant. But Jesus is, of course, the mediator of a new and better covenant, and he is the ultimate prophet with a capital P, the ultimate prophet, priest, and king, for he is the Messiah. And just as the first Moses received the law from God on Mount Sinai, so here the Lord Jesus Christ issues forth his commandments from this unnamed mountain in Galilee. And so Jesus says, teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. The church is to teach disciples of Jesus all that he has commanded. And that means it is to teach both law and gospel.

And the goal of discipleship is not just faith in Christ, although that’s absolutely foundational and essential, but to teach practical obedience that springs from such faith. In some, my friends, the mission of Christ’s church is to make disciples of Jesus who will trust and obey. But again, friends, notice that all of this assumes a Trinitarian framework. Now, we have here the Great Commission, but we also have here the Great Comfort. After Jesus gives this worldwide commission to his church to make disciples of all the nations, to baptize them in the name of the triune God, to teach them to observe all that he has commanded, how can they do this? How can we in the church ever accomplish this calling, this commission that Christ has given to us? Jesus says, and behold, I am with you always. to the end of the age.

This is the great comfort behind the Great Commission. It’s interesting in Matthew’s Gospel at the beginning of this Gospel account, Matthew explains that the virgin birth and incarnation of Christ means that Jesus is Emmanuel, which he explains in Matthew 1, verse 23, Emmanuel means God with us. Jesus is God with us. He came to us to dwell in our midst, and that’s the ultimate fulfillment of the covenant of grace, that God would come to dwell in love and friendship with his people. But you might think, wait a minute, isn’t Jesus getting ready to go back to heaven? How can Jesus say, I’m with you always to the end of the age? Friends, even though the resurrected Lord Jesus would soon ascend into heaven and no longer be present with His church in the sense of His physical, bodily, incarnate presence, nonetheless, Jesus promised that He would always be present with His church even to the end of the age.

How would that be possible? Well, this, of course, as we know from the rest of Scripture, this is made possible by the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Again, notice the Trinitarian implications the pouring out of the spirit at Pentecost, and that should comfort and courage and embolden our Lord’s church. Christ does dwell among his church through his spirit, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. So friends, by good and necessary inference, this passage demonstrates that the truth of the Trinity is foundational to the church’s faith and mission in this world. Let me ask you, dear Christian, is the truth of the Trinity foundational to your confession of faith? Well, I wanna share just a few more things with you before we wrap things up. This was the main point of my sermon today, but I wanna take us to a couple other scriptures as well.

I want us to next consider that the mighty works of the triune God in creation, providence, and salvation also show the doctrine of the Trinity to be foundational to our faith. It’s easy to see the doctrine of the Trinity here in the baptismal formula of Matthew’s account of our Lord’s Great Commission, where Jesus very explicitly says, baptize them in the one divine name, the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But the united testimony of Scripture shows that the Scriptures themselves are Trinitarian. You see, Scripture, let’s consider first of all God’s works of creation and providence. God’s works of creation and providence are presented in Scripture as being Trinitarian works. Scripture presents God the Father creating through the divine agency of God the Son and by the presence and action of God the Holy Spirit.

We touched upon that a little bit on the last Lord’s Day when we consider Genesis 1, verses one through three. I pointed out from that passage that The name for God that is used there in that passage, Elohim, Elohim is actually a plural. and the reason it’s not translated as God’s is because the verb to create is in the singular, and so it’s a plural of majesty, which certainly is compatible with the Trinitarian doctrine, but we also see reference in Genesis 1, verse 2, to the spirit of God, and then in verse 3, God says, let there be light, and so forth. God creates by means of his divine creative word, And that ultimately points us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we see that all three persons of the Holy Trinity are involved in the creation of the world.

This is affirmed by the Apostle John in his prologue, John 1, 1-3, in the beginning was the Word, that’s Jesus, that’s the divine Logos, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, face to face with God the Father, and the Word was God, Jesus is fully divine. All things were made through Him. Without Him, nothing was made that was made. Again, Jesus is presented as the divine agent of creation. And in Colossians 1, verses 15 through 17, you can look this up later if you wish, but in that passage, Christ is presented not only as the divine agent of creation, but as the preeminent Lord who providentially sustains all creation, preventing it from falling into chaos and disintegration. Children, have you ever wondered why is it that the universe holds together?

Why is it that when you get up in the morning, you don’t all of a sudden just disappear? Why is it that there is an order to creation? The Bible says it’s because Jesus is holding it all together. If the Lord Jesus were to remove his hand of providence from the world, from the universe, everything would disintegrate immediately, instantly. Everything would go out of existence, poof. all would collapse into chaos. It is only the sovereign hand of the Lord Jesus, the Father through the Son and by the Spirit, moment by moment, sustains the universe. And this is affirmed in other passages like Hebrews 1, verses one to three. Let me just briefly read that passage. Hebrews 1, verses one to three. The author of Hebrews writes, long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. The son is involved as the divine agent of creation, the father creates through the son. And then look at verse three. He, Christ, is the radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of his nature, which is another way of saying Jesus is fully 100% God, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. Christ upholds the universe by the word of his power. Again, Christ is presented as the divine agent of creation and the providential Lord who upholds the universe by the word of his power. In other words, friends, God’s works of creation and providence are Trinitarian works. And this shows the importance of the truth of God as a triune being.

But not only are God’s works of creation and providence Trinitarian works. Hallelujah, God’s work of salvation is also a Trinitarian work. You see, when it comes to creation in Providence, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work together in perfect harmony with one another. And so the Father creates through the Son and by the agency of the Spirit. The Father sustains all things through the work of the Son and by the Spirit. There’s no contradiction among the persons of the Trinity. The same is true in our salvation. According to the United Witness of Holy Scripture, just as all three persons of the Trinity work in perfect harmony in the works of creation and providence, so all three persons of the Trinity work in perfect harmony when it comes to human salvation. The United Testimony of God’s Word is that God the Father decreed and planned our salvation in eternity past, if we can speak of. and eternity past.

God the Son accomplished our salvation when He became incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ and died on the cross for our sins. And God the Holy Spirit applies to us in due time the finished work of Christ. In other words, God the Father chose us, God the Son redeemed us, and God the Holy Spirit regenerated and sanctifies us. This glorious, marvelous working together of the persons of the Trinity in our salvation is marvelously brought out by the Apostle Paul in passages like Ephesians 1, that glorious opening. doxology, this divinely inspired run-on sentence, I believe in the Greek, that verses 3 through, I believe, verse 14 are one sentence in the Greek, because Paul is so excited in expressing these glorious truths, but notice how all three persons of the Trinity work together for our salvation.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he, God the Father, chose us in him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, there’s the election, there’s the Father’s work, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved. In Him, in Christ, we have redemption through His blood. So the Father has chosen us, predestined us. We have redemption through the blood of Christ, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us in all wisdom and insight and so forth.

And then you skip down. to the latter part of this opening section of Ephesians, where he talks about our eternal inheritance. Verse 11, in him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. Notice verse 13, in him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with, what? or whom you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory. Isn’t this glorious? What this means, brother, sister in Christ, is that all three persons of the omnipotent triune God are working harmoniously together for your eternal salvation.

Oh, be comforted, believer. Be comforted in knowing that your eternal salvation has been planned secured and sealed by your sovereign triune God. If you are repentant for your sins and are trusting Christ alone for your salvation, it is because God is at work in you both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. Take comfort in that. All three persons of the Godhead are working in harmony for your eternal salvation. And remember, if God is for us, God, the eternal, sovereign, omnipotent, triune God, if this God is for you, what’s the conclusion? Who can be against you? Praise be to God. I wanna close very briefly with four implications of our Trinitarian confession. First of all, God’s revelation in Scripture is Trinitarian. The Father reveals himself through the Son and by the Holy Spirit.

God’s word, we are told, is breathed out, theopneustos, all scripture is theopneustos, breathed out by God. And in the scriptures, the breath of God and the spirit of God are closely associated. And that breathed out word, that written word of God, reveals Jesus, the living word. All of scripture is Trinitarian. God’s revelation in scripture is Trinitarian. Secondly, Christian prayer and worship are Trinitarian. If you go to a so-called Christian worship service and Jesus is never mentioned or hardly mentioned at all and there’s no implicit reference to the Trinity, you might as well have gone to a Jewish synagogue service or a Unitarian service. True Christian worship, true Christian prayer is Trinitarian at heart, at base. In the New Testament scriptures, God’s people typically pray to the Father through the Son and with the aid and help of the Holy Spirit.

That’s not to say that it’s wrong to pray directly to Jesus or directly to the Holy Spirit, but the typical pattern of prayer is to pray to the Father through the Son and by the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, the church’s missionary and evangelistic labors are Trinitarian. We saw that in our passage for today, where the goal of discipleship is to get baptized converts baptized in the triune name to learn under the authority and covenantal protection of the triune God. And finally, as disciples of Jesus, our baptism relates us covenantally to all three persons of the Trinity. As our passage for today tells us, Jesus says, baptizing them in or into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We have been baptized into the one divine name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

What that means, brothers and sisters, is that we have been brought under the authority, lordship, and covenantal protection of our great and sovereign triune God. So let us trust Him. Let us worship Him. Let us live for Him. And let us confess Him to a world filled with idolatry and false gods, a world that desperately needs to know Him in the glory and the graciousness of His sovereign triune being. Amen. Let us pray. Lord and Father in heaven, we give you thanks and praise for your son Jesus and for the presence of your spirit. We praise you, oh God, for your triune majesty. We ask that you would help us to see the practical implications of these truths and help us to worship and serve you accordingly. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen.

Let’s rise as we respond to what we’ve heard. Let’s rise and we’ll sing together. Hymn number 467, Cast Down, O God, the Idols. 467.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

September 24, 2023
Our Mission

About this sermon

The Great Commission rests on Daniel 7, where one like a son of man receives dominion over all the nations. Throughout Matthew, ‘Son of Man’ marks Jesus’s divine authority, and after his resurrection he declares that all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to him. Satan held the nations through idolatry, and Christ now sends his church to call them out of darkness through baptism and obedience to his commands. As long as some in Sewickley have not heard the gospel, this congregation has work to do.

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Sermon transcript

Jesus came up 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 the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Please be seated. Oh, thank you very much. To understand these last few verses of Matthew 28, We must begin with Daniel. Why? The background for Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 through 20 is found in Daniel, in Daniel 7. Why do I say this? There’s no direct quotation from it. The background for Matthew 28 is found in Daniel because of this term, the son of man, Not in these verses, but throughout Matthew.

The term son of man is when you first think about it would seem to emphasize Jesus’s humanity. After all, man, the son of man. Over against the son of God, but that is not the case. Let me just read in quick succession a number of passages In Matthew, which refer to this term, the son of man. We will see that the expression is not one that points, first of all, to his humanity, but rather the opposite to his divinity, to his divine authority as Messiah. Matthew nine, six, he has the authority to forgive sins. But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on Earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, get up, pick up your bed, and go home. He is Lord of the Sabbath, an institution established by God at creation, and yet he is its Lord.

For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, Matthew 12, 8. Matthew 13, 41, he will send forth his angels in judgment The son of man will send forth his angels. They will gather out of his kingdom all the stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness. And he will throw them into the furnace of fire. And in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 1627, send forth, he sends forth angels and judges men. For the son of man is going to come in the glory of his father with his angels, and he will then repay every man according to his deed. Deeds, plural. It looks as if I lost a page. I’m sorry. Anyway, the same verses continue on and on. Over and over again, we read that the Son of Man is the one who has divine authority.

He is the one who judges. All judgment and power are his. He comes in glory. And he is coming again in glory. So where does this come from? It comes from Daniel chapter 7, verses 13 and 14. Once again, I kept looking in the night visions and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man was coming. And he came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away. And his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. This is the background for Jesus’s declaration. Here, when he says. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, in other words, The vision which Daniel saw of the Son of Man presented to God, the Ancient of Days, that vision has been fulfilled.

Jesus has been crowned as king over heaven and over earth. And yet that throne is not on earth, but it is in heaven. Daniel, according to the first part of Daniel 7, It reveals that he saw this vision while Israel was in exile in Babylon. He saw four beasts representing four kingdoms from Babylon through Rome, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and then Rome. The Lord showed Israel that before the Son of Man would begin to rule for God, the first Babylon and then the other three kingdoms must arise. Accordingly, we read in history of those kingdoms. But finally, God himself, whom Daniel calls the Ancient of Days, will appoint his ruler. In Daniel 7, verse 13, we read, he came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. This is the picture of the coronation of a king.

According to verse 14, To him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom that all the peoples and nations and men of every language might serve him. And so his authority will be not only over Israel. But over all the nations of the world. Verse 14 goes on, his dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away. So this kingdom and this king will be eternal. It’s a kingdom that will never come to an end. And again, that coronation will be in heaven itself. So although he is to rule over all the nations on earth, his throne is in heaven. So he will be ruling from heaven over all the nations of the earth. Some Jewish and liberal students of the Bible have tried to argue that this son of man in Daniel seven is actually the saints of God.

But that doesn’t fit the context. In the prior context, there are four beasts that represent four different kingdoms and four different kings, the four beasts whose dominion God has taken away, according to verse 12, are clearly identified as four kings in verse 17. These great beasts are four in number, and they are four kings who will arise from the earth, we read in verse 17. Their dominion is given to the one like a son of man who is crowned as king. Thus, although the saints of God join him in rule, the one The one like a son of man to whom is given dominion and glory and a kingdom so that all the peoples and nations and languages should serve him is best understood not as a corporate hymn referring to all the saints, but as another king, one who is a divinely appointed king, one who is promised to the saints on earth, but who shall rule alongside of God in heaven.

Furthermore, The saints remain on earth, but the crowned king, the son of man, has his throne in heaven. The coronation of the son of man does not bring opposition to an end. According to Daniel 7, verse 21, not all will serve the Lord. Some will rather attack the saints of God who are on earth. I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints,” Daniel 7.21. But eventually the saints of God, we are promised, will gain victory. Verse 27. The sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the highest one and his kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all the dominions will serve and obey him. Jesus’s declaration in Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20, must be understood as a declaration of the fulfillment of this vision in Daniel seven.

Jesus has appeared as he speaks to his eleven remaining apostles, Jesus has appeared before the heavenly throne, he has been granted all authority by the Ancient of Days, as he says in Matthew, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Jesus is announcing that the final phase of God’s plan has begun. The son of man, the king of heaven and earth, has taken his throne and begun to rule. Heretofore, Satan had ruled over the nations since the time of Adam’s fall, and in particular, since the time of Babel. The nations had remained under his thumb, primarily through idolatry and polytheism. And so we see the devil’s claim, which was true, made in Luke chapter four. The devil led Jesus up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

The devil said to him, I will give you all this domain and all its glory, for it has been handed to me. and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you worship before me, it shall be yours.” By dying on the cross in place of his people, the Son of Man destroyed the rule of Satan. He paid the ransom for the sins of his people. He purchased for himself a people, saints from every tribe and tongue and nation. Thus, Just as Jesus began to reveal to his disciples several months before Passover, before his death, before coming in glory as king to judge, he must first die. From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem. He must suffer many things and the elders and chief priests and scribes from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and he must be killed and be raised on the third day.

Matthew 16, 27. Although Jesus told Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world, he tells us to pray that God’s kingdom would come to and in this world. Its otherworldly character is not unreal or nebulous. It is something which comes. It is something into which one must enter by the narrow gate, something for which the apostles were granted keys, authority to open and to shut that door. It is something from which they were commanded to put out unrepentant sinners. Thus, the kingdom, though heavenly, is very real. It is visible on Earth, distinguishable from the world. Those who have not entered it or have been put out of it. But this. Jesus has, in fact, begun to reign from heaven, both on earth and in heaven, his resurrection and his ascension marked the beginning of his reign, just as predicted in Daniel seven, his authority is absolute.

But as is also predicted in Daniel 7, not all submit to that absolute authority, not all submit to his reign. Many remain a part of the nations of this world under Satan, outside of the kingdom of Christ. Yet Christ is making his disciples. He is making for himself subjects, or as Daniel labels them, the saints of the Most High. He is delivering those who, along with their forefathers, had been deceived by Satan for millennia. Our passage in Matthew 28 verses 18 to 20 is the commissioning of the first evangelists, the apostles, with the power and the authority to call men, both Jews and pagans, out of the kingdom of darkness and into the discipleship of King Jesus. Those who receive baptism and obedience to the commands of Christ become the saints of God, of Daniel 7.

Of course, the main thing to be a subject of the Son of Man is to obey him. to follow his commandments. But that obedience begins by receiving baptism. And despite the fact that many in Japan, to avoid persecution and much worse persecution in many other countries around the world, despite the fact that many would wish that baptism was an option, it is not. If you are submitting to Jesus, the command is to be baptized and to observe all that Jesus has commanded. So obedience begins by receiving baptism. It’s no coincidence that many in Japan want salvation without it. They want the benefits of citizenship in heaven, forgiveness, eternal life. To become children of God. But they want that without the dangers of openly display displaying their heavenly citizenship and allegiance with Christ. Many of you probably don’t have that problem.

But for those who do, we ought to remember that there is nothing to fear, nothing to fear in Christ. The real dangers to anyone, whether it’s in China, whether it’s in a Muslim country, whether it’s in Japan or here in the United States, the real dangers are outside of the kingdom, not inside. You, those who do not serve Christ, are already serving a far more onerous master, Satan. There is no middle ground. There is no third alternative. In Daniel’s vision, the saints of God are overpowered for a time. And we experience that, do we not? They’re overpowered for a time. Chapter 7, verse 27 reads, Then the sovereignty, dominion and greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole of heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the highest one. It’s already ours.

His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all the dominions will serve and obey him. That is the way it ends, but for a time they are overpowered. Take your stand with Christ, submit to him. If you have not received baptism, if you have, learn to obey and to keep all of his commands. But this commission did not come to an end with the death of the apostles, the apostles whom Christ himself had commissioned. The Apostle Paul reminds Timothy of his duty to obey it, to keep the commandment, as he calls it. i.e., to keep this what we call the Great Commission. I read from 1 Timothy 6, verse 13. I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the proper time.

He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. At his ordination, the commandment from Christ to his apostles became Timothy’s duty as well. The vision of Daniel 7, of Christ and his saints doing battle, suffering, but ultimately overcoming the demonic opposition, is fulfilled by those who likewise are charged to keep that commandment, to keep what 2 Peter 3, verse 2, calls the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. A few verses earlier, it is clear that the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles becomes the personal duty of each of the teachers of the word, ministers, if you will, upon their ordination.

This is true even for those teachers, according to 2 Peter 2. This is true even for those teachers who later apostatize. Second Peter two, verse one. Speaks as follows about those apostate false teachers. There will be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. A little bit later in the chapter, he goes on to say this about those false teachers ordination by which they were bound to the Great Commission. labeled the holy commandment. Peter writes, it would have been better for them, for those false teachers, never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. Reading from the ESV. The heinousness, the heinousness of the sin of those false teachers is not only their personal apostasy, but also and especially in their using their commission.

To seek to destroy the saints of Christ by gross deception and error. The Great Commission making the nations into disciples for Jesus was to the apostles. The heart of their calling. the heart of their purpose and the heart of our purpose as the church militant here on Earth. Looking to the end of Luke’s gospel, our Lord places that commission to disciple the nations right alongside of his death and his resurrection as the summary of the teaching of the Old Testament. Luke 28, 24, verse 44 through 47. All things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms, i.e. the Old Testament, all things which are written about me must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, thus, it is written.

In other words, this is the message of the Old Testament. Thus, it is written that Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead on the third day and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. The Great Commission. In other words, the teaching of the Old Testament is summarized in three points, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ on the third day and the making the nation’s disciples for Jesus. Well, it is ordained ministers whose duty it is directly, as Paul tells Timothy, to keep the commandment. The Apostle Peter goes on to command as follows to the entire church, all of us. that you should remember the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. Second Peter three to ESV, that you should remember the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.

That’s for all of us, all of us are to remember, he doesn’t just mean, well, just remember, memorize it once and then you’ve got it. You know, he’s talking about it. Governing us, ruling us. It should be in our blood. It should be in our prayers. It should be in our giving. It must be on our hearts. We must pray for it. We must give for it. And above all, consider yourselves or your children sending your sons to a mission field at home or abroad. Furthermore, it’s not just out there. As the Apostle Paul is prepared to go on first to Rome and then on to Spain, he leaves behind his work in Asia Minor and in the Grecian Peninsula. And when he does, he could say this in all honesty to the Roman Church.

He writes to the Roman Church in chapter 15, I no longer have any room for work in these regions. An amazing statement. I no longer have any room for work in these regions. And since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain. And I hope to be helped on my journey there once I have enjoyed your company for a while. Chapter 15, verses 23, 24. As long as some here in Sewickley and in the surrounding communities that you reach and where you live. As long as some here have not heard the gospel, this congregation has its work to do. Remembering the commandment of the Lord and Savior and through your preacher, keeping the commandment to baptize and disciple the people of this community.

It was a joy to hear that you are planning an outreach concert, anything to get people in and hearing the gospel without a preacher, they cannot be saved. And that is why we are here. It really is. Let us pray. Our father and our God, we give thanks that the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of man, the king of kings, David’s greater son, remains seated at your right hand, but not at rest. He continues to intercede for us and for your people in every town, every community, every nation under heaven. He intercedes for his people. We ask, O Lord, that he would continue to do so for us, that we might not be devoured in this battle with the evil one and with his minions, with the remnants of those terrible beasts through whom Satan ruled long ago and continues to do so.

We ask that you would be pleased to pour out your blessing upon this congregation and its attempts to reach out into the community of Sewickley and Osborne and Coriopolis and the other areas around. Grant, O Lord, that many would come to hear the gospel and be saved. We ask your blessing, especially on the preaching of your word through Pastor Willauer. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. Let us continue our worship with hymn number 226 from the Blue Trinity Hymnal. Rejoice, the Lord is King.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

January 22, 2023
Genealogy of God’s Chosen King

About this sermon

Matthew opens his Gospel with a genealogy that presents Jesus as the Messiah, the son of Abraham and the son of David. Matthew arranges the names in three groups of fourteen, and he traces the line through Joseph, Jesus’s legal father, to secure his claim to David’s throne. The list includes Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth, sinners and outsiders brought in by grace. God keeps his promises across the generations, and the Savior came for sinners of every kind.

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Sermon transcript

Well, dear friends, let us rise for the reading of God’s Word. Again, we’re continuing to take a break during this Advent season from our consideration of the Gospel of Mark, and this morning we’re actually in the Gospel of Matthew. My sermon text today is Matthew chapter 1, verses 1 through 17. Matthew chapter 1. Verses 1 through 17. Dear friends, let us hear with reverence and awe the word of our God. Reading from the New American Standard Version. The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram.

Ram was the father of Aminadab. Aminadab the father of Nashon, and Nashon the father of Salmon. Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David the king. David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba, who had been the wife of Uriah. Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa. Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah. Uzziah was the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Ammon, and Ammon the father of Josiah. Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

After the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor. Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, and Akim the father of Eliud. Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Mathan, and Mathan the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. So all the generations from Abraham to David, are 14 generations, from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, 14 generations. Dear ones, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless our study of his word this morning.

Our gracious Lord God, Heavenly Father, we praise you that you are the God of history, that all of history is working out and falling out according to your sovereign and eternal plan. And we thank you that Christ is the center of all history, not only cosmic history, but our own personal history as well, as Christ is indeed our Savior and King. We ask that by your Holy Spirit, as we consider this portion of your word this morning, that you would open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word, feed our souls through that which we consider today, and we ask that you would deepen and strengthen our faith, our hope, and our love. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon this morning is Genealogy of God’s Chosen King, and if you’re following along in your sermon outline, you’ll notice that there’s three words that you can be listening for if you find that helpful to follow along in the sermon, and those words are Messiah, covenant, and promise.

Well, my dear listeners, the Gospel of Matthew appears to have been written to Jewish Christians in the early church in order to confirm their faith in Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah that had been promised by God in the Old Testament scriptures. And though the gospel itself is technically anonymous, the united unanimous testimony of the early church affirms that this gospel was written by none other than the Apostle Matthew. And in spite of the fact that many critical and skeptical scholars have gone to great lengths to argue against Matthew’s authorship, there’s really no compelling reason not to accept the early church’s unified, united testimony to the Apostle Matthew as the author. of the gospel that bears his name. Now our passage for this Lord’s Day morning is Matthew’s introduction to his gospel account. And as I was reading this passage, I suspect that some of you might have been thinking to yourself, oh boy, this is gonna be a snoozer of a sermon.

We’re considering a genealogy. Well, how boring, right? You may wonder, why does Matthew begin his gospel with a genealogy of Jesus? I mean, usually if you’re writing a book or if you’re giving a speech, the common wisdom is, well, you want to start off your book or your speech or your lecture with a hook. You want to grab your audience’s attention and draw them in so that they pay attention to what you have to say. But is this really an effective hook, if you will? How is it that by beginning his gospel with a genealogy, Matthew expects to draw in his readers and keep their attention? Well, we need to understand that Matthew is addressing a different audience than a 21st century Christian audience. You see, for us 21st century Christians, reading the genealogical lists of the Bible is about as exciting and interesting as, say, reading a copy of the phone book, or perhaps reading a table of technical statistics.

But for the Jews of the first century who knew Old Testament history and who knew their scriptures, genealogies like this one would indeed serve as an appropriate hook for them. It would draw them into Matthew’s narrative, for it would bring to their minds important truths and events and personalities from their own scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures. You see, the purpose of the genealogies in the Bible is not merely to give factual information about family and tribal history and so forth, although the genealogies of scripture certainly do that. But we need to understand that biblical genealogies were also recorded for the purpose of teaching theological truths about God’s redemptive work in history. And what is true of biblical genealogies in general is also true here in Matthew’s gospel as he presents his readers with the genealogy of Jesus, God’s chosen king.

That’s what the term Messiah or Christ means, God’s anointed one, his anointed, chosen, spirit-endowed king. Now we need to, if we’re gonna appreciate and understand what the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Matthew is doing here in this passage, we first of all need to observe and understand the structure and significance of Christ’s genealogy. And children, if you’re following along in your sermon outline, that’s my first main point. Observe the structure and significance of Christ’s genealogy. Friends, as we will see, under the Spirit’s inspiration, the Apostle Matthew structured this genealogy of Jesus Christ in a way that strongly highlights and strongly underscores the messianic royalty and kingship of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is what this genealogy, if you will, shouts out at us. Jesus is The Royal Messiah. He is the Royal King promised by the Father.

And from the very first verse, it also emphasizes that the covenant promises which God had given to Abraham, the patriarch, and later on to King David in Old Testament times, that these promises are fulfilled in Jesus the Christ. Again, the Christ being God’s anointed, chosen king. Now in verse one, what we have here is the title and introduction of this genealogy. And let me just read this verse again. Matthew begins his gospel in verse one, the record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. This is, again, as I mentioned, this is intended as a title or introduction to the genealogy. Now, I read from the New American Standard Version. I prefer the ESV here, translation on this particular verse. That version reads, The Book of the Genealogy of Jesus Christ.

This is a caption, a title, a heading. But that leads Bible scholars to ask important questions. Namely, does this introductory statement here, this title, this heading or caption here in verse one, is it intended to introduce just this genealogy? Or is Matthew intending this verse and this genealogy to introduce the opening chapters of his gospel, such as chapters one and two? Or is it intended as an introduction to the whole gospel account? Well, scholars are divided on that particular question, but it seems at least, at the very least, to be introducing the opening passage here, if not the opening chapters of this gospel account. Now, how is Jesus spoken of here in this passage? Well, again, it is said, the record the record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah or Jesus Christ. Both of those names are significant.

Children, what does the name Jesus mean? What does the name Jesus mean? It means the Lord is salvation. The name Jesus or Yeshua means the Lord is salvation. And what an appropriate name for the promised Messiah, the savior of the world. He is Jesus, the one who is by definition, the Lord, our salvation. But what about the term Christos or Christ, which is a Greek translation of the Hebrew term for Messiah? Well, that word Christ or Messiah was originally a title. But over time, because the name Jesus was closely associated with the title Christ, over time, Jesus and Christ were read together as if Christ was his last name. And here in this particular context, it appears that Christ, the term Christ, seems to have come to be used as a last name more than as a title.

But at the same time, the fact that Jesus of Nazareth, the one who is the Christ or anointed one, came to be called Jesus Christ, still underscores his royal messiahship. And what is surprising about this opening verse, this opening title, is Jesus’ lineage. His lineage is traced to David and ultimately to Abraham. The record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Now you may be scratching your head and thinking, well, wait a minute. Jesus was not the son of David. David lived centuries before the Lord Jesus came to this earth. And Abraham lived even further into ancient history. Well, by introducing our Lord’s genealogy and his whole gospel with these words, what Matthew is indicating is his intention to demonstrate in his gospel that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the promised Messiah, the one in whom all of the covenant promises made to the patriarch Abraham and all of the covenant, the royal covenant promises made to King David.

In Christ, those covenant promises are ultimately fulfilled. Now, again, as I pointed out, there were multiple generations between King David and Jesus, and even more generations between the patriarch Abraham and Jesus. Yet Matthew tells us that Jesus is the son of David and the son of Abraham. Is Matthew in error here? Is Matthew being deceptive? Is he using the term son in some kind of a deceptive way? Well, no. Friends, this is just one of numerous instances in scripture which shows us that genealogies in the Bible are sometimes, and often, in fact, intentionally selective, and they may contain generational gaps, sometimes even large gaps, such as verse one. Now, Matthew goes on to fill in those gaps a little bit when he gives the further genealogical information, but there are gaps in this genealogy from the standpoint of verse one.

It’s important to understand, friends, that in the Bible, the term son of can sometimes mean, more broadly, descendant of, just as the term father of can sometimes mean ancestor of. And that is how the term son is being used here. Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ, he is the son of David in the sense that he’s descended from David and ultimately descended from Abraham. I don’t think in verse one Matthew’s intending to say that David was a son of Abraham, although David certainly was, but it is Jesus who is described as son of David and son of Abraham. There are a number of kings and perhaps some other individuals that Matthew also chose to exclude from his genealogical list here in chapter one. Again, not because Matthew was mistaken or uninformed or being deceptive, but because he had a purpose behind his intentional selectivity.

We need to understand, friends, that this was regarded as a perfectly acceptable literary practice in Bible times. And Matthew was selective because he wanted to structure his genealogy to include three groups of 14 ancestors for symbolic and theologically significant purposes. And we’re going to take a look at that. Now we’re not going to go through all these names, don’t worry, we’d be here a very long time if we considered all of these names and the significance of all of these names, but I want to have us look at the symbolic structuring of this genealogy. Matthew explains at the end of this genealogical list in verse 17, he explains the symbolism that he’s getting at by structuring his genealogy in this way. As it says in verse 17, so all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations Notice, by the way, that 14 is, you know, seven times two is 14.

The number seven is very significant as a symbolic number in scripture. The generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations. From David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations. And from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, how many generations? 14 generations. Now, this was probably done to emphasize the royal messianic kingship of Jesus as the son of David. Well, what are you talking about, pastor? Well, in the Hebrew language, names could have a numerical significance. And as Dr. D.A. Carson explains in his commentary, the simplest explanation, the one that best fits the context, observes that the numerical value of the name David in Hebrew is 14. By this symbolism, Matthew points out that the promised son of David, referred to in verse 1, the Messiah, has come. And if the third set of 14 is short one member, perhaps it will suggest to some readers that just as God cuts short the time of distress for the sake of his elect, as our Lord Jesus will explain in his Olivet Discourse in chapter 24, verse 22.

So also he mercifully shortens the period from the exile to Jesus the Messiah. Now let’s focus in on the three major eras of redemptive history that are covered by Matthew in this genealogy. The first set of 14 ancestors that are recorded in verses 2 through the first part of verse 6, these ancestors cover the history of God’s covenant people from the time of the patriarch Abraham up until the time of King David. And so this first set of 14 ancestors traces the rise of the Davidic monarchy. The second set of 14 ancestors recorded from verse 6 through verse 11, this covers the history of God’s covenant people during the era of the kings, beginning with King David, and ending with the tragedy of Judah’s deportation into exile in the land, the pagan land of Babylon, which was a judgment of God upon his people for their covenant breaking, their unfaithfulness.

This era underscores the tragic event of the loss of the royal throne to the House of David. We don’t seem to really get today just what an impact that made upon the Jews at that time, around the time of the Babylonian exile. To see their beloved city sacked and their temple, the great Temple of Solomon, destroyed and to be dragged off away from God’s presence. which was represented by the temple and so forth, to be dragged away into a foreign land, the land of Babylon, to see the end of the Davidic king reigning on the throne in Jerusalem was a tragedy. But the third set of 14 ancestors is the answer to that tragedy. That’s recorded, this third set of 14 ancestors, which is recorded in verses 12 through 16. This covers the history of God’s covenant people from the tragedy of their exile in Babylon through post-exilic times, when the people were able to return from Babylon and rebuild the temple, the second temple, up until the birth of Jesus Christ.

And so the point here in this structuring is, again, to underscore the fact that in Christ, the one who is the son of David and the son of Abraham, in Christ the royal throne of David is restored, at least spiritually speaking. For Jesus Christ, as we like to say, Jesus Christ is great David’s greater son. David in the Old Testament was a type, a picture of the future Messiah who would come and not only reign over his covenant people, but would reign over all of creation for the sake of his people. Jesus Christ, great David’s greater son, he is the ultimate fulfillment of the royal Davidic line, for he is the Messiah, God’s chosen divine king. But you may have picked up on an interesting feature of this genealogy as we read in verse 16.

Notice that Matthew gives the genealogy of Jesus through his legal father, Joseph. Matthew is not giving the genealogy from Mary, he’s giving the genealogy that leads to our Lord’s legal father, Joseph. As it says in verse 16, Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. What’s the significance of that? Why does Matthew do that? Well, this is an important detail because Jesus could only be counted or regarded as a son of David and therefore as an heir to the messianic promises if his legal father was a descendant of King David. That’s what the prophecies of the Old Testament predicted that the Messiah would be of the house and lineage of David. Now, does that mean that Matthew is denying the virginal conception of Christ?

Well, no, because later on in this very chapter, Matthew records the events of the conception and birth, the supernatural conception and birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Matthew’s not denying the virgin birth. Matthew makes it clear here and in the verses that follow that Jesus was indeed conceived by the Holy Spirit and therefore that Joseph was not our Lord’s natural biological father but Joseph was Jesus’s legal father and it was necessary for Jesus’s legal father to be a descendant of David in order for the messianic promises regarding the Messiah being a son of David to apply to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that we’ve considered the basic structure and significance of this genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ, let’s consider some of the other truths that we can learn from this important passage of God’s Word.

And we could spend a lot of time in this passage. There’s many lessons that we could learn from this passage. But I want us to focus in especially, I want us to consider next, how this genealogy answers some of the Jewish slanders that have been raised against the origin of our Lord Jesus. This is my second main point in your outline. Consider how this genealogy answers some of the Jewish slanders that have been raised against the origin of our Lord Jesus. If you were to talk to a committed Orthodox Jew and ask such a religious Jew what they believe about Jesus of Nazareth, well, you would probably get an answer like this. Well, Jesus was a false prophet. He was a sorcerer. And not only that, he was an illegitimate child of Mary. He was a bastard child.

He was illegitimately conceived, conceived out of wedlock. Now it’s interesting that Matthew’s gospel lists in its genealogy, this genealogy here that Matthew presents, lists a number of women. And given the culture of the time and given the practice of that time, it was a patriarchal culture. It was not common to list female names in genealogies unless, and when a woman was listed in the genealogical lists, it was because that woman had a very special or particular historic significance within the history of the genealogy. Again, many commentators have noticed that Matthew’s genealogy includes a number of Old Testament women who were ancestors of our Lord. Why does Matthew do this? Let me just, again, review some of the verses. Look at verse three. It says, Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. And then skip down to verse five.

It says, Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab. And skip down to verses six and seven. David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba, who had been the wife of Uriah. And then verse seven, Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Ubiah, and so forth. Why the mention of these particular women? Well, again, one suggestion that I find persuasive is that Matthew here is apparently subtly seeking to answer the Jewish slander against Jesus, the slander that said that he was illegitimately born, that he was born of fornication, by mentioning these women. The mention of women like Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba were likely included by Matthew to counteract the allegation that Jesus was conceived out of wedlock. Well, how is that, pastor? Well, think about it. Let’s go through and consider some of these women. and consider the grace of God in the lives of these women, in spite of the circumstances that we will consider.

Back in the book of Genesis, we learn that Tamar had conceived Perez and Zerah through an incestuous union with Judah, her father-in-law. Judah was a rather seedy character as one of the patriarchs. He was not a good fellow. He was there when Joseph was sold into slavery. Judah was all in favor of that. And we read of Judah moving out of Canaan or moving out of the house of his father, marrying a Canaanite woman. He gave birth to his first two sons were Ur and Onan. And God slew, God killed those sons of Judah because of their wickedness. And Tamar, who had been the husband of these, I’m sorry, the wife of these two sons of Judah, Tamar was left alone as Shella, the third son of Judah, had not been given to her in marriage.

And she’s thinking, what can I do? You know, when you were a woman back then, you needed a man for support. There weren’t many options for, outside of prostitution, for a woman to survive unless she was connected with a household. And so she dresses herself up, covers her face as a prostitute. Judah goes into her and she conceives Perez and Zerah by them. And so, pretty, pretty, seedy account of what goes on there. Or think of Rahab. Who was Rahab? Well, she was a Canaanite woman. And before coming to faith in the true and living God, the God of Israel, she had been a prostitute. But she welcomed the spies, and she was embraced in God’s covenant people in spite of her background. What about Ruth? Well, Ruth was a Moabitess. And while the scriptures speak highly of Ruth’s character, she was a descendant of Lot, and therefore, one whose ancestor had been conceived through an incestuous union.

You can read about that in Genesis 19, verses 30 to 38. That passage indicates that after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot’s daughters had gotten their father drunk so that they could conceive children by him. And one of those children, Moab, was Ruth’s ancestor. And, of course, we read of Bathsheba. This was the wife of Uriah the Hittite. She’s mentioned in verse 6. This woman, Bathsheba, was the woman with whom David famously had committed adultery. And so you might say, well, pastor, this isn’t really edifying stuff. Well, yeah, I got some news from you. I got some news for you. If you read the Bible, not every, you know, reading the Bible is not like reading chicken soup for your soul. The Bible, not everything in the Bible is edifying. in the sense of, you know, uplifting.

The Bible is very honest and forthright about human sin and wickedness. And so in connection with these women in Israel’s history, there was a lot of sin, a lot of wickedness. And yet the Lord Jesus was regarded as a descendant of them, legally speaking. Now again, why would Matthew mention all of these Old Testament women with their sordid histories? Why would he mention these women in his genealogy of Jesus? Well, I think Lenski, Dr. Lenski is correct when he suggests that Matthew brings up these stains from Israel’s history as a way of responding to Jewish slanders against the Lord Jesus. Again, to quote from Dr. Lenski, he says this, let them occupy themselves with these real stains attested in the Old Testament history itself and not slander the pure maiden whom God chose to be the mother of his son.

So again, remember, Matthew’s writing to a Jewish context, to a context of Jewish Christians who would be familiar with all of these names, all of these personalities, and the sordid history connected with them, and they would understand, oh yeah, our Jewish neighbors who reject Jesus as the Messiah, they claim, well, he’s just, you know, he was illegitimately conceived, illegitimately born, he’s a bastard child. Well, remember your own history. Okay? And obviously, Matthew goes on to record the real story behind Jesus’s birth, namely his miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. And by the way, I’ll be preaching on the vital doctrine of the virgin birth this evening, for our service this evening, as we consider the virgin birth as an essential doctrine of our holy Christian faith. Well, in closing, dear friends, what are some takeaways that we can get from all of this?

You might be thinking, well, this is, I have never looked at a genealogy this way before. I’ve never understood why these details were here in this particular genealogy, but what is, how does this connect to me? How does this connect to the church today? Well, I think many things could be said, but I think a couple of important things need to be highlighted. And so this is my final point, some lessons for personal application from this passage. What we learn in this genealogy, brothers and sisters, is that God is faithful to keep his promises against all odds. God is faithful to keep his promises against all odds. This genealogy emphasizes that the coming of Jesus the Messiah, the advent of Jesus the Messiah took place through an historical process that was guided by God’s special providence.

A process that whereby God shows victory even over a sin in the life of his people. Now there were times in that history of God’s people, there were times when it looked like God’s promises would fail. Times such as the loss of the Davidic throne at the time of the exile to Babylon. But in the fullness of time, God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to be born of a woman, to be born of Mary, whose husband was Joseph, Jesus’s legal father. And therefore God’s promises proved to be true after all. And what that means for you and for me, brother and sister in Christ and dear listener, what that means is that God’s promises are true, even if they don’t seem to be true. even if they don’t seem to us, even if we wonder, well, how’s God gonna, you know, how’s God gonna work out His will in this situation?

Oh, God is faithful. He is faithful to His warnings, where He warns of wrath against sin, and do not let God’s patience and forbearance fool you. His patience, his long-suffering is intended to lead us to repentance. God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and covenant faithfulness. And so, as we’re told in 2 Peter, the Lord is not slow, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wanting any to perish, but willing that all should come to repentance, all of his people should. He is patient that all of his people should be called to himself by grace. But God is also faithful to his promises of salvation. Because God has shown his faithfulness to keep his promises throughout redemptive history, you can be sure that his promises of grace in the gospel are certain, and you can bank your eternity on them.

John 3.16. John 3 16 is sure and certain for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life. Are you, dear listener, trusting in God’s promises of forgiveness and grace and salvation that are offered to you in the gospel of Jesus Christ? God’s word is true. He keeps his promises. And if you come to Christ, if through sovereign grace God opens your eyes to see your sin and to see Christ as your only hope of salvation, Jesus says, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Come to Jesus Christ. and find rest for your soul. Take the burden, the weight of your sin and dump that at the foot of the cross.

Jesus Christ died on the cross for sinners just like you and me and he rose from the dead so that whoever believes in him, trusts in him and him alone for salvation from sin might not perish but have everlasting life. This passage of scripture, because it shows that God is faithful to keep his promises, to bring about the coming of the Messiah, it underscores the truth that he is faithful to keep all of his promises. His word is trustworthy, trust in his word. I think another lesson, another takeaway from this passage is that the great variety of individuals that are mentioned in our Lord’s genealogy, both the good and the evil, both the moral and the immoral, These individuals highlight the amazing grace and humiliation of our Savior. And it shows that he came to save all kinds of people, even people like Rahab the prostitute, even people like a covenant outsider, like Ruth the Moabitess, who by grace became part of and was enfolded in God’s people.

And so, dear listener, this highlights that our Savior is indeed a Savior of sinners. Sinners like me, sinners like you. And oh, what amazing grace. Oh, what amazing condescension our Lord showed in coming to this earth to redeem us from our sins. Dear friends, let us take these truths to heart, and by the grace of God, may the implications of these truths be worked out practically in our lives. For the glory and honor and praise of Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, the royal, anointed, divine King, our Lord. Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, sovereign and eternal God, we thank you that you sent your son Jesus to be our savior. We thank you, Lord, that you are faithful to keep your covenant promises. We thank you, Lord, that your word is indeed trustworthy.

We ask, Lord, that you would strengthen our faith through what we’ve considered today, and may your Holy Spirit draw forth from us praise in response to what we’ve heard today. We ask these things in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, amen. Dear friends, as we close our time together, we’ll rise and sing as our hymn of response, number 303, all praise to you, eternal Lord.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

December 18, 2022
The Marks of a True Church: Discipline

About this sermon

The third mark of a true church is loving biblical discipline. Right after the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus lays out the steps for dealing with a brother who sins, from private rebuke to telling it to the church. Discipline aims to reclaim the straying believer, to keep the church pure, and to uphold the honor of Christ and the witness of his people.

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Sermon transcript

Please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. This evening I complete a three-part mini-series on the marks of a true visible church. This evening we consider the mark of church discipline. And my passage, our passage for this evening is taken from the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 18, verses 15 through 20. I want to begin reading at verse 10 to kind of show the fuller context here. So let us hear God’s Holy Word, Matthew 18, beginning at verse 10, reading through verse 20, but our focus will be on verses 15 through 20. Dear friends, hear the inerrant, infallible, authoritative Word of God.

See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, Does he not leave the 99 on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the 99 that never went astray. So it is not the will of my father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, You have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.

Dear ones, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. You may be seated. Again, the title of my sermon this evening is The Marks of a True Church Discipline. The Mark of Discipline. And there is a sermon outline that has been made available. Church Discipline. Those sound like scary words, don’t they?

In the minds of many, those words would doubtless conjure up images of a medieval inquisition, or perhaps images of poor souls being thrust out of the church and unkindly shunned for even the smallest of offenses. Dear ones, it is admittedly a sad truth that throughout the church’s history, a great deal of harm has been done in the name of Christ by those who have misinterpreted, misapplied, or otherwise abused the Bible’s teachings on church discipline. And because of the church’s past and sometimes even present abuses of the practice of church discipline, there are some who would like to throw out the idea of church discipline altogether, one would suspect.

However, friends, the fact that the Bible’s teachings on church discipline have sometimes been abused and harshly applied is not a valid reason for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ to cease to practice a biblically-based, Christ-honoring, lovingly-applied form of church discipline. In fact, biblical church discipline is actually a very loving thing to do when it is done right. And it is a vital practice that the reformed theologians have historically identified as one of the biblical marks or characteristics of a true visible church of our Lord Jesus Christ. Along, of course, with the marks of the faithful preaching and teaching of God’s word and the right administration of the holy sacraments.

Now, why is this the case? Why is it the case that Reformed theologians have historically recognized not just the preaching of the word and the administration of the sacraments, but also church discipline as a mark, as marks of a true visible church? Well, I want you to think about that for just a minute. Let me give you a hypothetical situation.

Let us say that you have a local church where the Word of God is faithfully preached, at least in its basic fundamental integrity, and where the sacraments are administered according to Christ’s institution, at least, again, in their basic fundamental integrity. and at least formally and outwardly.

But let’s also say that this same church tolerates open heresy and scandalous sin amongst the membership and even amongst the leadership of the church. Friends, what would inevitably happen in such a church? Well, I guarantee you, beloved, sooner or later, the integrity of that church’s ministry of word and sacraments will be compromised, corrupted, and eventually destroyed if it should continue to permit open heresy and scandalous sin to go on unchecked. Eventually that heresy, eventually that immorality, whatever it might be, will spread like leaven throughout the whole congregation and the leadership, and that will impact sooner or later every aspect of the church’s life, including its preaching and its practices, including its ministry of word and sacraments. Of course, this is a sad tale that has been repeated numerous times in the history of the church.

This is the sad history of many of the so-called mainline or old-line denominations. Denominations that at one time had been faithful, gospel-preaching, Bible-believing denominations. But they began to compromise. They began to get squishy and allow for liberalism, theological liberalism, to have a place within the church. Over time, the leaven of that doctrinal corruption has permeated the whole lump, and it’s very, to the point where the faithful preaching of the gospel is, in some of these mainline churches, is almost non-existent today.

Well, friends, our Lord Jesus Christ addresses the issue of discipline in our passage for this Lord’s Day evening. In Matthew chapter 18 verses 15 through 20, our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who is the king and head of the church, reveals the process of discipline by which an offending brother is to be reclaimed for the kingdom and by which reconciliation in the church is to be obtained.

Now, it is important to recognize that Jesus here speaks of what we might call a private personal offense, an offense where one professing believer offends or sins against another professing believer. Jesus, in this particular passage, is not talking about public or well-known sins. If a sin is public, it can be dealt with. in a public manner. But this is a private personal sin that could become public if the offender is not brought to repentance.

Dear ones, it’s important for us to understand that what our Lord Jesus is teaching here, this is not merely good or pious advice that Jesus is giving to us, his church. No, dear ones, these are divine commands. These are imperatives. The process that Jesus outlines here is binding upon the Christian conscience. We are conscience bound to follow this procedure where the circumstances require it. To neglect or shun this disciplinary process is ultimately to shun and neglect the demands of Christ’s lordship over our lives as professing believers and over the visible church.

So with that in mind, as we turn our attention to our passage for this evening, notice that Matthew, in his gospel account here, records this passage right after having recorded the parable of the lost sheep. And one of the things that we learn in the parable of the lost sheep is the father heart of God that goes after lost and wandering sheep. Our heavenly father, is concerned to seek out his lost sheep. Christ, the good shepherd, is the one who seeks and saves that which is lost. And praise God, when we were lost sheep, Christ came after us. He went searching for us and he brought us on his shoulders back into the fold.

So it is in this context here where Matthew is recording our Lord’s teaching on on God’s concern to draw back and bring back into the fellowship of his church, his kingdom, those who are straying, that Jesus gives this instruction on how to deal with offenses in the church. And it’s interesting that Jesus gives such clear instruction here. It’s almost as if Jesus is expecting that there will be conflicts, personal conflicts, amongst the community of his disciples, amongst his church. Jesus knew that there would be because Jesus knows the heart of man, including the heart of believing man.

We are still sinners, though we are renewed and regenerated, saved by grace through faith, we are still works in progress as well. And sooner or later, in one way or another, there are offenses that arise in the church. And so we need to deal with those offenses and those sins that we inevitably will commit in one form or to one degree or another against each other. And so it is in that context that Jesus gives these instructions.

And I want you to notice here, first of all, beloved, the three purposes of what we might call remedial church discipline. This is my first point on the outline if you’re following along. The three purposes of remedial church discipline. Pastor Willauer, what are you talking about, remedial church discipline? When we talk about church discipline, there’s a number of aspects of church discipline that we can talk about. We can talk about, for example, preventative discipline. There’s basically, overall, two kinds of church discipline.

There is what we might call preventative church discipline. And believe it or not, this form of church discipline is actually taking place at this very moment. Did you realize that? Did you realize that you and I all are subject at this very moment? to preventative church discipline? Well, how is that so?

Through the preaching of God’s word. Beloved God, the Holy Spirit, through his word, disciples us. He disciplines us. The Holy Spirit, through the word, convicts us of sin, and through the gospel, awakens and implants faith and hope within our souls. God forms us and disciplines us through the primary means of his word.

Church discipline in its preventative aspect is exercised through such things as the faithful preaching and teaching of God’s word, through the fencing of the Lord’s table, which will also take place this evening, through membership instruction and catechesis of our covenant youth, instructing our covenant youth in the truths of God’s word and so forth. And by the way, this preventative aspect of discipline is one of the reasons why biblical church discipline is inevitably and inseparably connected to and intertwined with the faithful ministry of the word and the sacraments.

But then there is what we might call remedial church discipline. This is the aspect of discipline that our Lord is speaking of in our passage for tonight. He doesn’t use that terminology, but he’s talking about, again, what could be described as remedial church discipline. This form of church discipline is called remedial because it seeks to remedy something that has gone wrong in the life of a professing believer or in the life of the church. For the rest of my sermon, we’ll focus on this type of church discipline based on our passage for this evening. Now, I want you to notice, again, in our passage, as I said, that there are basically three purposes that our Lord Jesus outlines to this disciplinary process in the midst of explaining this process to us, his disciples.

What is the purpose of church discipline? Is the purpose of church discipline to shun and reject and cast out and crush those who don’t fall into line? No, the first aspect, the first purpose, if you will, of remedial church discipline that Jesus speaks of is the reclaiming of a straying believer.

Jesus says this in verse 15, if your brother If your brother sins against you, he’s talking about a brother in Christ, a fellow disciple. And I think by implication, this includes the sisters as well. If your brother or, by implication, sister sins against you, what do you do? You get on the phone and start the gossip chain? Is that what you’re to do? If your brother sins against you, no. It says, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, what is the result if he listens to you? If your brother who has sinned against you, notice there is sin here. We’re not just talking about something in your brother or sister that annoys you or gets under your skin, but you know, which you can overlook.

I mean, after all, the Bible says love covers a multitude of sins. When it comes to, I mean, all sin is serious in the eyes of God, I understand that. But we recognize, and our confessional standards recognize, that there are degrees of sin. Some sins in our brothers and sisters can be overlooked, and we can be patient and recognize that, hey, it’s not my job, it’s not your job to be the Holy Spirit to our brother or sister in Christ who might be going astray in terms of minor sin. relatively speaking, minor sin. But when it comes to certain sins that are scandalous in nature and which cause real offense in the body of Christ, these sins need to be addressed.

And they need to be addressed by you, if you are the offendee. You and I have a responsibility to seek reconciliation. So the first purpose that is mentioned by our Lord is the reclaiming of the erring brother. It says, if he listens to you, you have gained your brother. You have restored the relationship. You are still on a brotherly trajectory with each other. At this particular point in the process, the sin is still a private matter, not involving the corporate church. So again, it is to be dealt with privately.

But what happens if the brother doesn’t listen to you? And I think the assumption here is to go to this brother repeatedly, not just once, but to try to plead with your brother over time. Verse 16 and 17 address that, and this gets into the second purpose of remedial discipline, which is to preserve the purity of the church. In verse 16 it says, but if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses, If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to whom? Tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

As the Apostle Paul states in addressing a serious sin issue that existed, that was present in the first century church at Corinth, In 1 Corinthians 5, 6, Paul writes, do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? The Corinthian church at that time was tolerating a serious sin of sexual immorality in its midst. And Paul confronts them and he says, don’t you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? You can’t just let this go. This has to be addressed, in other words. And that is the implication here in this passage as this private personal sin starts to become more public.

In verse 17, we are told that a professing believer who persists in ignoring the biblical counsel and calls of the church to repent of something that is shown to be a sin is to be treated as a Gentile and a tax collector. Aha, we’re to shun this person, right? Remember the first century Jewish context in which Jesus is speaking here. When Jesus talks about treating someone as a Gentile and a tax collector, how were Gentiles and tax collectors viewed by the covenant people of God in the first century? They were viewed as those outside of the covenant community, as those who needed to be evangelized, proselytized, so that they could be brought into to the true and living God and into the covenant community.

So this is saying that such a one who refuses to repent after repeated calls to repentance is to be treated as someone who is not a Christian. He’s not behaving as a Christian. Christians will repent. The Holy Spirit dwells in us and the Holy Spirit won’t let you be comfortable with continuing in clear, unrepentant sin.

And so this is someone who is to be treated as an unbeliever who needs to be loved and evangelized. That’s the implication, not shunned and never talking to that person again. So the first purpose of remedial discipline, reclaim the straying believer. The second purpose, though, is to preserve the purity of the church. The church is not to tolerate in its midst those who are clearly impenitent in their sin over time. And the third purpose is to guard the honor of Christ.

This, I believe, is implied in verses 18 through 20, where Jesus talks about the keys of the kingdom. Verse 18, truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. That’s the language of exercising the keys of the kingdom. Verse 19, again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.

For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am, there am I among them. By the way, I know that verses 19 and 20 often get quoted with respect to prayer. And I think that’s a secondary application. Certainly, as we gather in corporate worship, Christ is present with us in a special way.

But in this particular context, Jesus is talking about the act of church discipline, where two or more are gathered in my name to exercise the keys of the kingdom. Now, verse 20 reminds us that Christ promises to be judicially present when two or more are gathered in his name for the purpose of exercising church discipline. This means, for example, that when ministers and elders gather as a court of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ for the purpose of exercising loving, biblical church discipline, which involves exercising the so-called keys of the kingdom, which is what verses 18 and 19 are talking about, Christ promises to back up in heaven those judicial decisions that they make, provided, of course, that those decisions are faithful to the teachings of God’s word. The exercise of the keys of the kingdom that is done illegitimately or unbiblically is not recognized by the Lord Jesus, of course.

And so when the Pope excommunicated Martin Luther in that papal bull, that excommunication did not take in heaven, I believe, because Luther was justified in his criticism of the church at that time. But dear ones, all of this clearly implies that Christ is zealous for the honor of his name in the church that bears his holy name. So the reason that church discipline is a mark of a true visible church is because church discipline is given as a gift of Christ to his church for the purpose of reclaiming, offending, or straying sheep and bringing them back to the fold, bringing them back to a relationship of integrity, a right relationship with Christ and with his church, and also guarding the honor and the purity of the church as well as the good name and reputation of Christ.

Beloved, Christ our Savior disciplined us as sinners. He did so by his law and gospel, and he continues to do so. In the law, Christ disciplines us by confronting us with our sin, showing us that we are incapable of saving ourselves, and driving us outside of ourselves to Christ. And in the gospel, Christ forgives us as he brings us to faith in himself as Lord and Savior, as the one who was crucified for the forgiveness of our sins and raised again from the dead for our justification. And so Christ has disciplined us sinners by confronting our sins and by his grace bringing us to repentance. And he calls us as a church to be a community of such discipline, loving discipline. Has Christ graciously brought you to repentance through his law and gospel? Jesus Christ is the only way for sinners to be saved. Come to him today by his grace and you will be saved.

And so we’ve considered the purposes of biblical church discipline, but next let us consider the process of remedial church discipline that Christ outlines for his church. This is the second point in your outline, the process of remedial church discipline that Christ outlines for his church.

And we’ll focus especially We’ll go back and focus especially on verses 15 through 17. Now the first two steps are informal in nature and therefore they are to be followed by any member of the church who believes that they have been sinned against, seriously sinned against, by a brother or sister in Christ. The last two steps should involve the organized church and the officers of the church so that these can be called the formal steps of church discipline.

But let’s look at step one. And step one, again, going back to verse 15, is to go personally to your brother who has offended you and seek reconciliation. Again, look at verse 15. If your brother sins against you, Go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

That’s awkward, isn’t it? Who of us likes to do that? Raise your hand if you like confrontation. Okay, well even if you do like it, I imagine you’re not gonna raise your hand. But the fact is that that’s actually, that’s a dangerous thing if you enjoy confrontation. Most people don’t enjoy confrontation.

Most of us would much rather kind of sweep problems under the rug and not address them, because having to confront an erring or sinning brother or sister in love, prayerfully, gently, but firmly and directly, that’s awkward. But Jesus calls us to put on our courage and to do the right thing. That doesn’t mean that you go in all guns blazing if you feel that you need to confront a brother or sister, if you feel you’ve been sinned against in such a way or to such a degree that you can’t just overlook it. If you feel it’s a serious sin that needs to be confronted, then obviously you need to pray about it, you need to maybe think through what you would say to that brother or sister, and maybe arrange to meet them in a non-threatening setting, like getting together for coffee or lunch or something. But nevertheless, we need to take up our responsibility and be willing, when the circumstances call for it, to confront that brother or sister who has sinned against us.

Now, I want you to keep your finger here in Matthew 18, and I want you to turn back to Matthew 5. Matthew chapter 5, in the midst of our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, in verses 23 and 24, where Jesus kind of gives us the other side of this picture of offense here. In verse, in Matthew 5, 23 and 24, Jesus speaks of a situation where you’ve done the offending, where you’re the offender.

You’ve offended against someone. Maybe you don’t realize it at first, but then you suddenly realize it. What should you do in those circumstances? Well, it says this. Again, in verse 23 and 24. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.

Now, I believe there’s a little bit of hyperbole here. If I’m in the midst of preaching and I suddenly remember, oh, that’s right, I offended brother or sister so-and-so, does that mean I need to say, okay, folks, hold on a second, I need to go make a phone call, be reconciled.

I don’t think that’s what Jesus is saying, but the point he’s making is that reconciliation and being at peace with one another in the body of Christ is so important. In a sense, it’s even more important than worship. Here, Jesus, in this Matthew 5 passage, tells us that we are responsible to seek reconciliation with those whom we have offended. And that makes sense to most of us, right?

You wrong someone, and you come to realize that you’ve wronged someone. We realize, oh yeah, I need to go make that right. But what about if someone sins against you? The natural sinful reaction when we’ve been sinned against, when you’ve been sinned against, is to say, oh, they need to come to me first. They did the wrong.

While our passage for today gives us instructions on how to handle a situation where you believe someone else in the church has offended you, nonetheless, you too have a responsibility. The point here is that whether you are the offender or the offended, the offendee, if you will, Both the offender and the offendee have a responsibility in the body of Christ to seek to be at peace with one another. I’m reminded of what the Apostle Paul writes in Romans, I believe it’s Romans chapter 12, where he says, insofar as it depends upon you, be at peace with all men. But anyways, getting back to our passage, if this step doesn’t work, if you’ve gone to your brother or sister and tried to reason with them, and perhaps over time tried to reason with them and they don’t repent, what do you do next? Well, step two is to take one or two witnesses along with you to act as impartial mediators.

Look at verse 16. It says this. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.” Now, this is legal language. This harkens back to what God had commanded Israel back in Deuteronomy chapter 19, verse 15. If you look at Deuteronomy 19, verse 15, we read these words.

A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. That was a requirement in the civil theocracy under the Old Covenant, and that is a requirement in the church courts as well. Every fact should be established by two or three witnesses.

And by the way, this does not mean that if the brother or sister who has offended you If they’re not listening to you, that you find a couple of your friends who will sympathize with you and your side and go and gang up on that person. That’s not what this means. This is talking about two or three people who can be impartial witnesses. Because maybe you’re taking offense when you don’t need to take offense. That’s why it’s important to have impartiality here.

But if this step doesn’t work, what’s the third step? The third step is to tell it to the church. Again, verse 17, if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Again, friends, notice we are to tell the church, not the world.

We are to keep this as in-house as possible. Now, since in our Presbyterian system, in our system of biblical Presbyterianism, the ministers and elders are representatives of the church, I believe the implication here is that this matter ought to be brought to the session first. And it would seem that the reason why the church, through its session, and the session can inform the rest of the congregation when it gets to this level, it would seem that the reasons why the church should be informed at this point is so that the congregation can be well-informed enough not to gossip about the individual, but to pray for the sinning brother that he or she might be restored, and also to help in counseling him or her to repentance, and can avoid spiritual fellowship with the individual in question.

But what happens if we get to that point in the process and still the sinning brother or sister is recalcitrant, is hardened, isn’t listening to counsel or heeds to repentance? Well, step four is to put him outside the church. In other words, treat him as someone who is not behaving or acting like a Christian. Treat him or her as someone who needs to be evangelized, not shunned, but evangelized, earnestly evangelized. You see, up to this point in the process, the offending person is to be viewed and treated as an erring brother or sister in Christ.

But if this individual persists in refusing to heed repeated calls to repentance given over a lengthy period of time, then that person is to be excommunicated from the church and treated as an unbeliever, not out of a spirit of vengeance or anger, but out of love to help wake that person up to their spiritual danger.

Beloved, it is truly a grievous and heartbreaking thing when a faithful church has to excommunicate one of its own members. And thankfully, I haven’t had to deal with this much over the course of my ministry. But many, many years ago, in the first church I served, there was a situation in our church where a woman in the congregation, a member of the church, was cheating on her husband. And it was discovered. and she refused to repent and we had to excommunicate her. It was a very grievous thing. The good news, by the way, I mean, the bad news was that the marriage broke up and, you know, this was a very sad thing in the life of our church. But eventually, this woman who had been excommunicated was brought to repentance and was restored to Christ and his church.

So we rejoice in that. And that’s the goal of excommunication. It was a grievous process, but it bore spiritual fruit in the end. But friends, excommunication should always be an absolute last resort. Again, the goal of a biblical excommunication is to impress upon the offender just what serious spiritual danger he or she is in, and to bring that offender to repentance and restoration to Christ and Christ’s church.

And how are we to treat those prodigal sons and daughters of the covenant who come back How did the father in the parable of the prodigal son treat the prodigal son when he returned from the pig slop? You know, you remember the story. The son has this speech that he’s prepared. I’m not worthy to be your son. Let me be one of your servants. How did the father in that case treat the prodigal son who returned home? Did he say, oh, it’s you. Okay, I guess I’ll let you stay with my servants, but don’t ever come into the house again. No. He went, he saw his son returning in the distance and he ran out to him and embraced him and threw a party.

And that’s how the church should respond to excommunicated individuals who repent and return to the church. We, brothers and sisters, are to be welcoming to any prodigal son or daughter of the covenant who returns to Christ and his church. Beloved, Christ has reconciled us sinners to himself by his grace, and he calls us as a church to be a community of reconciliation. By God’s grace, let us seek to resolve conflict in the church biblically, lovingly, consistently, always aiming for restoration and reconciliation.

We won’t do so perfectly because we are still sinners on the way, but it should be our goal and intention to follow our Lord’s instructions in such passages as this and other passages of God’s word that have relevance to the practice of church discipline. So in closing, my friends, We considered tonight church discipline as a mark of the true church. Why, again, is church discipline a mark of a true visible church of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, first of all, beloved, faithful church discipline holds church members accountable to the demands of Christ’s Lordship. As those who profess faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are to live under our Savior’s Lordship.

And we need accountability. I need accountability. I am so thankful, brothers and sisters, that I am a biblical Presbyterian, because I know that as a minister of the gospel, I’m accountable to my brothers in Presbytery. And if I start to really wander astray, if I start to preach heresy, or if I fall into scandalous sin, I know that my Presbytery will hold me to account. And I’m thankful for that, because I’m a sinner and I need accountability, and I’m grateful for the accountability provided in the church. And so that’s one of the reasons that it is a mark of the true church, because we all need accountability and Christ’s body is to be an accountable body.

Faithful discipline is also a sign of Christ’s love for his church and of church members’ Christian love for one another as brothers and sisters in the family of God. if I may offer an illustration from my own personal life. And it’s actually, it’s not directly an illustration of church discipline, but it’s an illustration of a brother in Christ confronting me when I needed to be confronted.

There was a time back the summer after my junior year of college, I was renting an apartment with two other friends from college that summer in the college town where I was attending school and working on campus and all of that. And so it was the first time in my life when I had responsibility to chip in to pay the monthly rent for this apartment. But surprise, surprise, as a college student, I found myself struggling financially. And there was one month when I realized I wasn’t going to be able to contribute my part for the rent that month. And I was very embarrassed about that.

Now, one of my apartment mates was a fellow Christian, a gentleman named Bill. And Bill and I were both active in our college Christian fellowship. And I was about to make a very foolish financial decision, a financial decision that would have hurt me personally, as well as would have been a poor testimony to my faith. And my friend Bill found out about this foolish decision, this foolish financial decision that I was about to make. And I remember, I still remember to this day, he came into the apartment and he looked at me, almost eyes glazing, and he said, Jeff, you can’t do that.

What are you thinking? He let me have it, but he didn’t let me have it to denigrate me or to beat me down or make me feel foolish. The thing that really bothered him is that I was too proud to admit to him that I needed help, that I couldn’t meet my obligation that much in a month, and I was too proud to come to him and say, hey, can you help me out a little bit this month? I was too proud to do that. And he was hurt by that. And he took me to task for that to such an extent that it actually brought tears to my eyes. Tears because I realized that I’d hurt my friend.

And I’m so thankful because I realized then this is a true friend. He cares about me. He’s not just concerned to make sure that I pay my fair share of the rent. He cares about me as a brother in Christ. And he saw that I was about to make a stupid decision And he saw that I needed to be brought back to the right path. And he did that. I thank God for Bill and what he did that day. Now that again, that’s not church discipline as such. But that’s the kind of thing that Jesus, I believe, is talking about in this passage. A brother who has sinned against you, and you care about that person. You want to see them walking in the right path.

Faithful discipline is a sign of Christ’s love for his church, and of church members’ Christian love for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. And faithful, loving discipline also helps the church to maintain the integrity of its gospel witness before a watching world. Brothers and sisters, I don’t have to tell you, if you’ve read the news, if you’re aware of what’s going on in the Christian world in recent decades, many examples can be given of how various churches have given Christ a black eye by tolerating scandalous sin amongst its clergy and amongst its membership. And so the world, we wonder why the world doesn’t take us seriously.

These things ought not to be so beloved. Let us as a church seek to maintain the honor of Christ and the witness of the church by being faithful in the exercise of loving, Christ-centered, biblically-based discipline for the glory of God and for the good of each other’s souls.

Amen. Let us pray. Lord and Father in heaven, We do thank you and praise you, God, that you in Christ discipline us out of love. And we thank you, Heavenly Father, that you’ve called us to be a community of disciples who hold one another accountable out of love for one another, and especially out of love for you, our Lord. And so be with us, oh God, as a church. Help us to be faithful in our preaching, in our practice, and in our discipline. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

December 12, 2021