The sermon for this morning came from Matthew 28:16-20. The sermon title is The Triune God. This is our second time to visit the Redeemer Presbyterian Church. This church has been preaching a series of sermons on the theme: To Know the Living God. The pastor structured his sermon around the idea of the Triune God with four points: 1. His reality; 2. His authority; 3. His Community; and 4. His eternity. Throughout the sermon, the attributes of God were explained and elaborated in details. But the pastor did not mention anything about discipleship. Preaching on this passage without mentioning the great concept of discipleship is incorrect. I expected the pastor to tie who God is into what He expects the church to perform on earth. I don’t mean that discipleship needs to be mentioned in every sermon. What I mean is that discipleship cannot be not mentioned if we preach on this passage. Why? Because Jesus put the emphasis on the phrase: make disciples of all nations.
When Jesus said, “And surely I am with you always, to the every end of the age,” something is missing if we only say that God will be with us in Christ to the end of the age. Yes, our God is the eternal God. Doctrinally, this is absolutely correct. No one can say that this is not sound theology. Nevertheless, it is kind of incorrect exegetically if we only focus on God’s attributes without stressing on the main point, which is, make disciples [imperative in Greek] through going, baptizing, and teaching (three participles in Greek). The resurrected Lord will surely be with us when we co-work with Him in the process of presenting all Christians mature/perfect in the likeness of Jesus Christ until He comes again.
Matt. 28:16-20 is one of the great passages for the doctrine of the Trinity in the New Testament. It’s always right to preach on the Trinity with this passage. But the greatest responsibility of the church that Jesus has entrusted to us cannot not be preached on.
No comments:
Post a Comment