Holy Trinity June 7, 2020
Matthew 28:16-20
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
In the Name of Jesus.
The Lord puts his Name on something and makes it his own.
All was his. In the beginning the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit created all things, including man and woman. It was all The Lord’s. Genesis 1:26:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the Earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
The fish of the sea, birds of the air, all creation, it was given to the man and woman. A gift to them. And they belonged to God.
All things, in the man and the woman, belonged to God. It was all his.
Then, sin. Man and woman not receiving gifts in the way God gives them, they would take them as they wanted them; Man and woman not wanting to be creatures, but lords. Man and woman bringing themselves and all creation into sin.
Their lord now? Not the Creator, but the great deceiver, the tempter, the liar; not he who bestows life, but he who brings sickness and death.
Those swallowed up in sin and death, who are under the lie and the power of the demons, who live in fear, the Lord of life, the Creator, he wants them, he loves them. So he puts his Name on them; he marks them as his own.
When he made Israel his own, calling them out from among the nations to bring them to the promised land, he did it by giving them the covenant and putting his Name on them.
The Lord told Aaron and his sons the priests, to put his Name on the people of Israel. Numbers 6:27:
The Lord said, “put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”
How are Aaron and the priests to put the Lord’s Name on these people? Numbers 6:24:
[The Lord said,] you shall say to them,
The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
The Name of the Lord thrice: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
So even now when the Lord gathers his people to his Name, the first thing heard at the Lord’s service is the pastor turning to face the Lord’s people and saying, In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
This is the Name gathering us together, the Name from whom we receive every good gift, the Name of the Lord who is holy and who makes holy—it is the Name again being bestowed upon the people the Lord loves.
It is not us beginning in the Name, as if the Lord’s Service is something we are performing, so now we might as well get started.
It is, rather, the Lord bestowing his Name, blessing those who belong to him.
And we belong to him because he has baptized us into his Name. Matthew 28:20:
Make disciples of all nations,
[said Jesus,]
[by] 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 Lord puts his Name on you and makes you his own. In his Name, he is giving all that he is.
It is the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All that the Father did in so loving the world that he sent his only-begotten Son to be the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world; all that the Father did when out of love for his Son he raised him from the dead and exalted him to the throne in Heaven, so that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow in Heaven and on Earth and under the Earth; all that the Father has done to ransom the sinner and exalt his Son, he, in giving you his Name in Baptism, he has given to you.
All that the Son did at his baptism when clothed in the sins of every sinner and named as the God’s Lamb to take away the sin of the world; all that the Son did on the cross to shed the blood to atone for all sins of every sinner; all that he did by descending to Hell to proclaim to the demons that they are defeated and hold no more accusation against you or me or our children; all that he did in walking out of the tomb alive; all that he did in his ascension where he now intercedes to his Father for you and me and our children—all of it, he has given to you by giving you his Name in Baptism.
All that the Holy Spirit does in being sent forth from the Father and the Son to bestow gifts from Heaven; all that he does to have the Gospel proclaimed on Earth to gather sinners into the Church; all that he does to bring into the congregation the Body and Blood of the Son that sinners may eat it and drink it for the forgiveness of sins; all that the Holy Spirit does to bring us all the gifts of Jesus and bring our prayers before the heavenly throne—all of it, the Holy Spirit has given to you by giving you his Name in Baptism.
All nations, says Jesus. Make disciples of all—my Name goes forth for every sinner, no one left out.
No one excluded because some are Jew others Greek—it goes to all. None excluded, whether male or female, the Name is for all. No one excluded because slave or free, none excluded because old or infant.
The Name is Jesus’ to give, and he gives it for all.
And this morning, we see the Name given to little Amias.
The blessing is his. All that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit give, it belongs to him, he is blessed, for the Lord is good to his Name.
And we are blessed. For we who bear the Name rejoice that Amias is given us as our brother in Christ.
And we rejoice that we are given to intercede for our world, for our neighbor, praying that all those who do not yet know the Name, who do yet have the sureness and certainty of the blessing of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, praying that the Lord would bring his Gospel to them, gathering them, too, into the holy fellowship of those who bear the Name.
In the Name of Jesus.