This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Holy Spirit” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 1, 1995.

This afternoon we are reading from Matthew 28, and we are reading from verse 11 to the end of the chapter. Give your attention to God’s holy, infallible Word. Now, while the women were on their way, Behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened.

When they had assembled with the elders and the council together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers and said, You are to say his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep, and if this should come to the governor’s ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble. They took the money and did as they had been instructed, and this story was widely spread among the Jews as it is to this day. But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, that some were doubtful.

And 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 into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Father, we bless you that we have been made, by your grace, citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. We are asking you that we, with all humility, might also recognize our place in this creation. We pray that we might be responsible in our jobs, but we also ask you, Lord, that we might be responsible in the various relationships that we have to those in this world. We do think of our teachers and our employers. But we also think, Lord, of the government that is over us, and we have been commanded by you to pray for those who have authority over us in this world. We do ask, Lord, for them, that their rule would reflect your righteousness and your justice, that we as citizens might be respectful as is right. We pray your blessing upon our nation, but we ask, Lord, that we might be mindful of such service as we might perform throughout the world as a nation for the good of other nations. And we are praying, our Father, that we would see more and more governments that are kindly disposed to the ministry of the gospel so that the gospel might go forth unhindered.

To defend our God, we pray for our various missionary endeavors. May our missionaries be respectful of government authority, even as that is an outworking of their respect for the authority that belongs to Christ and to him alone. We pray these things through Christ.

Amen. Now I realize what I’m up against this afternoon. I’ve been in this position before, and I’ve watched the toothpicks come out. as they’ve been used to hold up drooping eyelids. So I’m not promising this won’t be painful, but we’ll try to make it as little painful as necessary.

We have been dealing with the Holy Spirit in the gospel accounts, we have been considering the Holy Spirit, specifically in the synoptic accounts, that’s Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And we have been looking at, specifically, passages in Matthew’s Gospel, using his Gospel as a stepping stone for our considerations. Let me list to you, as we begin tonight, major places in the synoptic Gospels where the Holy Spirit is mentioned. So we start, of course, in Matthew’s Gospel, and this is paralleled in Luke, with the account of Christ’s birth.

Of course, the Spirit is operative there. Christ is conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin. That’s number one. You understand, then, that the New Age dawns in a work of the Spirit. God works afresh for his people, and that in the power of the Holy Spirit. The kingdom of God is making its appearance, and this is conceived in the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ’s birth. No human generation here, supernaturally conceived by the power of God, indeed through the Holy Spirit. by John the Baptist, you recall, Matthew 3, verse 11.

He’s talking about the fact that he baptizes with water, but he’s preparing the way for one who will baptize in the Holy Spirit, or with the Holy Spirit and with power. John the Baptist, in this prophecy with regard to the ministry of the coming Messiah, is anticipating the Holy Spirit’s activities in relationship to the conclusion of all things. Holy Spirit there matched with fire. Don’t miss that point in John’s prophecy. Next, of course, just a few verses later, the baptism of Jesus. You remember the account. Jesus has come to John, and he has submitted himself to baptism.

And the heavens open, you recall, and the Spirit of God descends dead-like upon Christ, and then there is the voice out of heaven declaring that this one is in fact the Son of God, and that the Father is indeed well pleased with him. So you have Jesus’ baptism, and not very much longer, a few verses further, you have the Matthew 4, verse 1, the fact that Jesus is then driven out into the wilderness by the Spirit, the intention of the Spirit to drive Jesus out into the wilderness to be tempted, a text that is well worth considering when you’re thinking of your own position with regard to God and the temptations that come upon you. But Spirit’s will here expressed in driving Jesus out into the wilderness, Matthew 4, Next, we have spent some time on Jesus’ mention of the Spirit explicitly, Matthew 12, verses 28-32, placing things very dramatically in relationship to the Spirit and the Spirit’s ministry.

He says that if he casts out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Later in that same section, he speaks about sins that can be forgiven and sins that will not be forgiven. And he says that while sins against the Son of Man will be forgiven, sins or blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. The Holy Spirit in connection again with the presence of the Kingdom of God, personhood of the Spirit in you as well as the Holy Spirit now is looked upon as a personage against whom blasphemy can be directed.

And as well, the Holy Spirit brought into relationship with judgment, even final judgment. We come to the last text of great importance here with regard to the Holy Spirit at the conclusion of Matthew’s gospel. unique to Matthew’s Gospel, the Great Commission, so called, verse 19, as Jesus, now the risen Christ, speaks to his disciples as he is sending them out, and he tells them that they are to go to the nations and that they are to baptize the nations into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. looking at these six instances. We can say that the point to which Matthew’s gospel has been pressing is that Great Commission and the mention of the Holy Spirit in connection with it. The point to which the gospel has been pressing is that Great Commission and the mention of the Holy Spirit in it. we can go back through the various references to the Holy Spirit in Matthew’s Gospel and see what is said at the conclusion of the Gospel as the culmination point with regard to those references. The point at issue as Christ is conceived in the power of the Holy Spirit is unto the end that the nations might be reborn, might be generated And that by the agency of God, and not by the agency of men.

The prophecy of John the Baptist. Maybe in ways that he didn’t quite imagine as he spoke those words, but nonetheless, here now is the baptism of the Holy Spirit placed in connection with these words that Jesus utters at the conclusion of the Gospel. Jesus’ baptism itself, as he is endowed by the Spirit for the carrying out of his ministry, the Church also endowed by the Spirit, commissioned in the Spirit, commissioned with the name of the Spirit for the carrying out of its ministry. Baptism is an initiatory rite for the Church.

You don’t end there. At that time, you move on. You must live. Is there some parallel between your baptism and what follows in the trials and difficulties of your life, and Jesus’ baptism and what followed for him, the trials and difficulties that he faced?

So we are pressing forward from these references throughout Matthew to see their culmination in the Great Commission as if that is the point to which the gospel had been pressing with regard to the Holy Spirit. In the ministry of Jesus declaring that if he by the power of the Holy Spirit casts out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon the people. Now the kingdom of God is manifest in earnest as the disciples are commissioned to disciple the nations.” So we see that as you move through the Gospel, this final reference with regard to the person of the Holy Spirit is the point to which the Gospel has been present, but it also brings into view A very interesting phenomenon, and that particularly in Matthew’s account, because you see what is in view here in the commissioning at the end is not just the Holy Spirit but also the Church. The Spirit is united to the Church.

Jesus’ mention of baptism assumes that. It assumes the Church and its order. Now, why do I say that? I say that because you, sitting here today, don’t have the right to baptize the person sitting next to you. You don’t have the right to go home and baptize your kids in the bathtub or your swimming pool. The comments of Christ here at the end of the gospel assume the Church and its order.

His commissioning here functions as something of an ordination for the eleven. They are ordained, they have a responsibility and an obligation, they have a duty, they have a calling, they have an office. And now there are to be about fulfilling that office, particularly in the way in which Jesus has spoken of it. to them, namely they are to baptize. They’re not just to go, they’re not just to evangelize, they are to baptize, and that going, that baptizing, and even the instruction that Jesus speaks about in conclusion in the Great Commission, affirms the Church and its order, the Church and its offices.

So if I’m correct, if the mentions of the Spirit previously in Matthew’s Gospel are pressing towards the Great Commission, and when you come to the Great Commission at the conclusion, and at the center of the Great Commission is the doctrine of the Church, has then Matthew been pressing us along with the Spirit to the conclusion that the Spirit is inseparably united to the Church?

To ask the question, I hope is to answer it. Now, this is as we might expect from Matthew, because Matthew is the one who does speak of the Church a couple of times during the course of his gospel. You recall the account of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus, and the Great Compression from Peter. Jesus, in response to that compression, says, Upon this rock I will build my church. That statement is unique to Matthew’s gospel. Jesus is talking to his disciples about how they are to handle sins amongst the brotherhood, and he brings up specifically the matter of the Church, chapter 18, verse 17, where he mentions the Church explicitly in regard to the discipline.

Now, this connection between the Holy Spirit and the Church should be nothing new to us, although it may be something that we lose sight of too often. You understand the order of the Apostles’ Creed? It’s Trinitarian. The first part is dealing with God the Father, the second part with God the Son, the third part with God the Holy Spirit. So I ask you, what’s the phrase that appears right after the mention of the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Catholic Church, as he heard it, is the same in the Nicene Creed. The Holy Spirit and the Church are bound together in our confession, not just in Scripture, but we, in our confessions, taking our cue from Scripture, saying the same thing. Now, why is that important? Because somehow, it has come to be believed among many that the Holy Spirit can be separated from the Church. That somehow the Holy Spirit operates apart from his Church. That somehow the Holy Spirit is detached from the sacraments, even particularly the sacrament of baptism. The operations of the Spirit have the Church in view, and yes, they have baptism that takes place in the Church in view as well. Now, that’s not to say that they are synonymous, that being baptized by water in the Church means that you’re baptized by the Holy Spirit automatically, and that you’re in, you’re automatically saved and regenerated and all that business. But it is to say that there is this inseparable bond between the operations of the Spirit and the operations of the Church.

Having established this, Matthew 28.19, in the mention of the Holy Spirit in the Trinitarian formulation for baptism, becomes a light in which the other references that we have Matthew’s gospel concerning the Holy Spirit are to be appreciated. And that is particularly the case for Matthew 3, verse 11, and the prophecy of John the Baptist. There is one coming greater than I who shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. John the Baptist may well expect in that statement and from that statement that the appearance of the Christ, who was baptized with the Holy Spirit, brings immediate conflagration.

The judgment arrives. There is that sense in which the scrutinizing of God appears in the world as never before, with his ministry, even with his ministry through the Church, is made effectual. But you see, the wonderful thing is that that prophecy by John the Baptist ends up being exegeted by what we find at the conclusion of the Gospel and what Jesus says in the Great Commission. Jesus indeed comes to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire, and yes, there is a judgment coming, but preparatory unto that judgment is the ministry that you have described in the Great Commission by Christ to his disciples. Preparatory for the coming judgment is the baptism into the name of the Father, into the name of the Son, into the name of the Holy Spirit.

And this, then, becomes that which preserves unto the judgment and through judgment. throughout the Gospel of Matthew, and even in relationship to the Holy Spirit. But now understand, as the judgment itself is delayed, and you are the beneficiaries of that, the ministry of the Holy Spirit comes to you with blessings upon blessings. As you look at those blessings and the ministry of the Holy Spirit to you in your circumstance, it is to prepare you for that which comes, and to preserve you lest you be overtaken, lest you succumb to the judgment.

But where do we find the ministry of the Spirit to that end? Well, you find it in the local Christian bookstore. You find it in, you know, ad hoc conferences that are held here and there across the United States or around the world. You find it in religious meetings. No, you don’t. you find it where the baptisms take place, in the Church. That is where the Holy Spirit is operative, in and from the Church, for the transformation of the peoples from the nations, that they might be gathered together as God elect, as a holy assembly for him.

So, that’s all I have to say this afternoon. We’re done. I hope that too many of you don’t have to wake up now in order to go home. But, if you get nothing else from this message, please, hear me. the Holy Spirit is bound to the ministry of the Church.

Our Father, we would be appreciative of what you have done for us, even as it is communicated to us in the sacrament of baptism We would not look away from that sacrament to find the operations of the Holy Spirit insofar as you have bound yourself to that sacrament and the blessings of your covenant to that sacrament. We are praying, Our Father, that we would not be deceived in this age in which there are so many invented and contrived ministries. We ask, Lord, that our hearts may be set upon you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and particularly now in light of this message, that we might be focused well with regard to the operations of the Spirit in connection with the Church. O Lord, may your Church around the world be of the same mind. We ask this in Christ’s name. 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.