Trinity Sunday - Sent Together || Matt 28:16-20 & 2 Cor 13:11-13

Kia ora, and welcome to the St. Francis Church

Sermon Podcast. We're so glad that you've joined

us. Our prayer is that as you listen, you would

encounter God's presence, be refreshed in your

faith, and equipped for everyday life with Jesus.

As a church, we are learning to faithfully follow

Jesus by practicing His way at His pace. For

more info about who we are and what God is doing

among us, head to stfrancis .co .nz. Grace and

peace. Morning, church family. You can tell the

season's changing because jackets are still on.

It is. We've had a mix of weather this week,

haven't we? glorious sunny days to fog and damp

days and everything else in between. But that's

just a change of seasons and as Dave's mentioned

already that's what we're in as well with the

church calendar. We've come 50 days from Easter

to Pentecost last week. A week out now we're

slipping into ordinary time but it's great to

kick it off this next 20 odd plus weeks with

this Trinity Sunday. The readings that we've

had this morning from Matthew 28 and 2 Corinthians

13, together with the Trinity Sunday, it's talking

about the fibre of who we are as disciples. What

should knit us together, what we're called to

do and the people we should be every day. If

you're like me, sometimes Jesus' words are so

familiar that we can stop truly hearing them.

Sometimes I think it's selective hearing. Other

times we're just so familiar with them. Like

these ones, go and make disciples of all nations.

How does that make you feel? It's not for me.

It's someone else to do that. But we call this

the Great Commission. It sounds big and global,

something that is, well, that's for missionaries,

pastors, church planters, or unusually confident

Christians with laminated Bible tabs and impressive

prayer lives. But Jesus is speaking these words

to ordinary disciples. And Matthew tells us something

wonderfully honest. When they saw him, they worshipped

him. but some doubt it. That's a deeply human

sentence, isn't it? I wonder where you are, even

like this morning, where you've worshipped Jesus,

but where are the doubts as well this morning?

They're standing before the risen Jesus. Death

has been defeated. They've seen that. The grave

is empty. They've looked in there. Jesus is alive

and still some doubt it. Worship and doubt in

the same breath, in the same group, perhaps even

in the same person. That means that God's mission

was not entrusted to people who heard everything

worked out. It was entrusted to worshipping,

wandering, sometimes wobbly disciples. And that's

good news for us today. We want to witness, but

we feel awkward doing it. We want to disciple

others, but sometimes we wonder whether we are

following Jesus faithfully ourselves. Worship

and doubt. And into that mix, Jesus says this.

All authority in heaven and on earth has been

given to me, therefore go. Now think of it when

we grew up. The authority of our parents or a

teacher or a coach or something, go out there

and do it. And we went because they said to do

that. Well, Jesus says, all authority in heaven

and on earth has been given to me, therefore

go. Not because you and I are impressive, not

because you are fearless, not because you've

mastered the Christian life, but because Jesus

is Lord and he is with us. So Jesus begins this

great commission with this, all authority in

heaven and earth has been given to me. Before

Jesus gives a command, he actually gives us a

reality. The foundation of discipleship is not

our energy. It is not our church programs. And

it's not our personality type. It is not whether

we are extroverts or introverts. It is not whether

we feel confident explaining faith. The foundation

is this, Jesus reigns. With all authority in

heaven and earth has been given to me. Over the

life and death, over history, over the church,

over our neighbourhoods, our fears that we have

in our lives, over our families, our workplaces,

our schools and over our ordinary week. Jesus

reigns over all of that. And why does that matter?

Because Christian witness today can feel intimidating,

can't it? We live in a context where faith is

often seen as it's mine, it's private. It's optional,

strange, outdated or even suspicious. Many people

are spiritually curious. but institutionally

cautious. What's happening there? What's going

to happen if I enter there? They may not walk

into a church building just because the doors

are open or there's a sign that's out the front

that says, all are welcome. They may not understand

the Christian language or the liturgies that

we may use. They may have had a painful experience

with religion. And they may be watching to see

whether the people of Jesus, you and I gathered

here, actually look anything like Jesus. So Jesus

does not send us out with a swagger. He sends

us out with his authority and his presence. Dallas

Willard described discipleship as this, apprenticeship

to Jesus, learning from him how to live our actual

lives in the kingdom of God. When I was learning

the sign writing trade, I was apprenticed to

someone to how to hold a brush, how to mix paint,

do all the mundane things, how to sweep a floor

properly with a broom. All those things as an

apprentice. My dad, who was a carpenter, he was

apprenticed to someone else, then apprenticed

others. To learn the trade that you were called

to do or you'd chosen. We are apprenticed to

Jesus to learn his way. to be his people. That

is discipleship. It is not just knowing Christian

information. It is learning Jesus' way of life,

looking through scripture, being guided by the

Holy Spirit. Can you say, what is the headline

of the words at the top of our weekly newsletter

that goes out each week? I was met with the same

silence earlier on. See words so familiar that

you lose sight of them? Who's looking on their

phone for their newsletter? Practicing the way

of Jesus at the pace of Jesus. Right at the top.

So the question is not only do I believe in Jesus,

it's also am I learning to live from Jesus, from

the Holy Spirit, to be guided by them, by reading

scripture, understanding what it actually means

in my life to be a disciple as I apprentice to

Jesus every day. So how would Jesus live my family

life? How would Jesus treat my neighbour? How

would Jesus speak in my workplace? If we're learning

from Jesus, then we live like him in those places.

How would Jesus handle conflict in our church?

Or how would Jesus respond to the lonely or the

overlooked, the difficult, the poor, the old,

the young, the anxious or the angry? What would

then be my response if I encountered anything

like that? Discipleship is not a Sunday hobby

and then you pack it away after morning tea until

next week. It is a whole life apprenticeship.

Jesus says go and make disciples. And that word

go can carry the sense of as you go. So as you

go from here to wherever you are today. As you

go during the week to different places. Go and

make disciples by the words that you speak and

the life that you live. Now many workplaces put

out shirts, don't they? Or tops which got a branding

on it saying who that person is working for.

Your life is branded very differently as disciples

of Jesus. It's branded by the Holy Spirit. By

how you speak and behave and how you... hold

back words which should never be spoken. In other

words, this is not about going overseas, though

it includes that. It's not only about special

events, though God can use them. It is not only

about church services, though they matter deeply

of gathering together. It is about the people

of God living as disciples as we go each and

every day. As we go to school, as we go to work

or to the supermarket or to sports practice,

whether it's a cafe or back to our homes and

streets, the mission field is not only over there,

it is also next door to whoever you encounter.

And this is where discipleship and witness belong

together. Sometimes we separate them. That's

over there. They're like two railway lines running

parallel. We know what they are, but they're

never going to connect. We think discipleship

is what happens inside the church and witness

is what happens outside the church. But in the

New Testament, they are joined. It's like those

two parallel rails, one's being switched to come

in and join together. We are discipled in the

way of Jesus, and then our lives, each and every

day, become a witness to Jesus. Leslie Newbigin,

in his book, The Gospel in a Polarist Society,

says that a church is being discipled becomes

a visible sign of the gospel. And he says it

this way. The church is not the source of the

witness. The Holy Spirit is the witness. And

the church is a community through which a spirit

bears witness. That matters in today's context.

In our life today. Because our neighbours may

not first ask, what is your church statement

of faith? Now I think that would be a lot harder

to answer than, what is the top of our newsletter?

They may ask consciously or unconsciously, do

these people that are apprentices to Jesus, do

they love well? Do they forgive? Do they listen?

Do they serve? Do they tell the truth? Do they

have hope in the world that's out there right

now? And do they make room for the lonely? And

do they treat children and older people with

dignity? Do they handle disagreement differently?

Do they care about this neighbourhood? Now, we

fall pretty short sometimes on each of those.

But our hope is that we try and, as we confess

and repent, is to work better at them in the

next engagement with someone. Our witness is

not less than words. We must speak of Jesus.

But our witness is more than words. It is a shared

life that makes the good news believable, just

as Jesus did signs and wonders to point to him

and to his Father. Jesus does not say, well,

Tony, go and make attenders. He does not say,

well, go make consumers of who I am. He does

not say, well, Tony, go and make disciples who

agree with you. I know that doesn't work out.

OK. I want to do something. Can you all stand

up, please, if you wish to? OK, you can sit down

now. Ah! Phew, you go. Now, I had the authority

and the... To get you to stand. And you did.

Jesus says, go and make disciples. He has authority

over heaven and earth. Easier to listen to me

than it is to listen to Christ. Because the sacrifice

and things of what he says to go and make disciples

is far greater than just standing up and sitting

down. I wonder how you felt about those instructions.

What are we going to do? I want you to now hear

these words from someone else. As I've said,

his instructions to us all, make disciples. A

disciple is a learner, a follower, an apprentice,

someone whose life has been reshaped around Jesus.

That means the aim of church life is not simply

to fill seats, it is to form people as apprentices

of Jesus. To form people who love God. To form

people who love their neighbours. To form people

who know how to pray. To form people who forgive,

who serve, who can suffer with hope. To form

people who carry the presence of Christ into

ordinary places. This is important for a mixed

-age church. Discipleship is not just for adults.

It's not just for youth. It's not just for children.

It's not just for leaders. The youngest among

us are not the church of tomorrow. They are part

of the church today. The oldest among us are

not retired from discipleship. They and you are

living libraries of faith, endurance and wisdom

and prayer. The middle -aged are not merely busy

volunteers. You are called to model faith in

the pressure cooker of work, family, finances

and responsibility. And people are watching.

And young adults are not a problem to be solved.

You are image -bearers called into courage, purpose,

Holiness and belonging. Children can pray. Teenagers

can witness. Older people can disciple. New believers

can encourage with the enthusiasm that they have.

Quiet people can serve faith powerfully. And

wounded people can become healers by grace. A

healthy church. What does that look like? Well,

it is not a crowd watching a few spiritual professionals

do it for you. A healthy church is a family of

disciples helping one another follow Jesus. Tripping

over, helping back up, but continuing. Paul's

words in 2 Corinthians 13, well, they give us

a great picture of that kind of church life.

He writes, finally, brothers and sisters, Rejoice.

Strive for full restoration. Encourage one another.

Be of one mind and live in peace. And the God

of love and peace will be with you. Notice how

practical that is? Rejoice. Be restored. Encourage

one another. Pursue unity. Live in peace. This

is not glamorous stuff. This is just missional,

living out life stuff as an apprentice of Jesus.

Because one of the strongest witnesses of church

and its people can have in a divided age is a

reconciled community. We live in a world that

is quick to outrage. I said to someone this morning,

you open the news on a new day and you think,

what's going to happen? Or what has happened?

It's quick to cancel. A world which is also quick

to divide, to label people, and quick to assume

the worst of someone. And into that world, Paul

says to the church, be restored. Encourage one

another. Live in peace. That does not mean pretending

that everything is fine, because that's wrong.

It does not mean avoiding hard conversations.

It does not mean unity at the expense of truth.

It means we learn to deal with one another in

the way of Jesus. As a leader of church over

25 years, I've seen it, heard it and experienced

all of the worst that we can be as disciples

of Jesus and all the best. I'd rather have more

of the best. But it happens in the life of churches

because we forget who we're actually apprenticed

to and how we should behave and speak and love

one another. We tell the truth with love and

that's hard to do. We repent when we are wrong.

We forgive when we are wounded. We refuse gossip.

We honour the awkward person. And we make space

for the young. And while we're doing that, we

also listen to the old. We carry the weak. We

bless instead of bite. That kind of church becomes

a witness for those that enter this door, but

also in the community that's around us. In Matthew

28, Jesus... sends the disciples out together.

In 2 Corinthians 13, Paul addresses the church

together. This matters because we see that in

the modern Western culture that often turns faith

into the private individual journey. It's my

faith. No one else's. It's my growth. Why are

they interested? It's my calling. I'm not going

to tell anyone else what God's placed in my life.

It's my preferences. I like this, not that. It's

my worship style. Hymns to contemporary or to

silence or tese. It's my spiritual life. No one

else can touch it. But the New Testament, well,

that keeps calling us back to a people. Jesus

is forming a people who reveal his kingdom together.

That means our witness is not just, Look at my

personal faith. It is, come and see a community

learning the way of Jesus. And this is deeply

relevant for the neighbourhood in church life,

wherever churches are planted. Imagine a church

known not just for Sunday services and gatherings,

but for its presence in the neighbourhood. The

streets that are out there around this building.

A church where community... The community would

notice if it disappeared. That is witness. Not

flashy, not forced, not weird. Just the people

of God living as a sign of the presence of Jesus

faithfully. N .T. Wright speaks often of the

church as a signpost of God's new creation. A

people whose life points beyond itself to what

God is doing in the world. So when we bless,

when we speak words of encouragement, when we

love someone else, that is pointing to what God

is doing in the world. That is the kind of witness

that our neighbourhood needs. Not a church obsessed

with survival, but a church alive with hope.

These passages that you've heard this morning

from Matthew 28 and 2 Corinthians are deeply

Trinitarian. Jesus says to baptise disciples

and he says do it with these words, in the name

of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy

Spirit. In 2 Corinthians, Paul blesses the church

with these words, may the grace of the Lord Jesus

Christ and the love of God and the fellowship

of the Holy Spirit be with you all. This is not

just a formal ending that Paul uses. This is

the life that you and I are invited into. The

Christian life is with the triune God, Father,

Son, and Spirit, which is the love of the Father,

the grace of the Son, and the fellowship of the

Holy Spirit. That means discipleship As we go

around being apprenticed to Jesus, it's not self

-improvement with religious language. It is being

drawn into the life and love of God. You see,

the Father sends us in love. The Son saves us

by grace. And the Spirit impels us for fellowship

and for witness. And because God is not isolated

but Father, Son and Spirit, and eternal love.

The church, well, you and I, cannot be a collection

of isolated individuals. We are drawn into communion

with God and to commune with one another. And

this is why church unity matters. This is why

reconciliation matters. This is why encouragement

matters. This is why peace matters. Because the

life of the church is meant to reflect the life

of God. And when the church is cold, when it

becomes divided, consumeristic or self -protective,

our witness becomes blurry. But when the church

is gracious, loving, spiritual, truthful, humble

and hospitable, our witness becomes clearer.

People begin to see a glimpse of God's life among

God's people. And what does that look like today

then? Well, five things, and I'm just going to,

a couple of sentences to each one of these things

today. It looks like presence. Now, you and I,

we cannot witness to people. We never notice.

Jesus' promise to us is, I am with you always.

If he is present with us, then we can be present

with others. And in a distracted age, slowing

down enough to learn a name, it means listening

without rushing to fix it or to ask someone,

well, how are you really doing? Do you want me

to sit with you? Maybe you can just spend some

time. It means being interruptible. Even though

you might be thinking, I'm right in the middle

of this task here. In a distracted age, presence

is powerful. If you jump to another slide, Stuart,

the next one, then we'll come back to this one.

Michael Frost, in his book, Surprise the World,

says, Missional Christians don't primarily invite

people into their world. They enter the world

of others. Go and make disciples. So as you go,

enter their world. Tell them about me. Show them

about me. Let them know the love of God, the

grace of Christ, and the power and the fellowship

of the Holy Spirit. And then following presence

formation, we need to ask in the life of this

church as well, what events are we running? And

then we've got to look at, should we be doing

them? But we need to ask this, what kind of people

are we becoming? Are we becoming more patient,

more generous, more prayerful? Are we becoming

more courageous and more forgiving, more like

Jesus? Because the credibility of our witness

as his disciples is connected to the character

of our discipleship. Another thing that it looks

like for us is this is shared responsibility.

Making disciples is not only the minister's job

or the elders of the church. It is the work of

the whole people of God. Parents disciple children.

Children remind adults of wonder. Youth encourage

one another. Older believers mentor younger believers.

Small groups become places of formation. Friendships,

well, they become spaces of prayer. Hospitality

becomes mission. Every believer has a part to

play. But it also looks like ordinary courage.

Witness does not always mean preaching on a street

corner. Because you wouldn't be here if that

was you. Now when you see someone preaching on

a street corner, what do you do? You cringe,

don't you? For them or for you? It would be for

you. Do you walk close to them or do you walk

closer to the shop front? That's not for every

one of us to do that. That is for some people

to do. Encourage them. Say, good on you for witnessing.

Sometimes it means saying, I follow Jesus. I

follow the chiefs. Well, I follow Jesus and the

chiefs. And saying, to be able to say that without

embarrassment. Sometimes it means offering prayer.

It means inviting someone to church. Or it could

be apologising first. That takes courage. Sometimes

it means refusing to join gossip. Sometimes it

means telling your story simply. This is what

Jesus has done in me. Ordinary courage is still

courage. And fifthly, it looks like peace. Paul

says this to the church. Live in peace. And the

God of love and peace will be with you. Now,

peace is not passive. Peace is something that

we practice. We do that here every Sunday. In

church life, peace means we refuse to let preferences

become idols. We refuse to treat people as problems.

We refuse to let disagreement become contempt.

And when it's right, we pursue restoration because

Christ has restored us. That kind of peace speaks

loudly in a fragmented world. So I want to give

you this illustration now of what discipleship

is like. Think of a lighthouse. I've given you

a picture to help think of a fancy one. A lighthouse

does not chase ships around the ocean, does it?

It stands where it has been placed and it shines.

But the light has to be clear. If the glass is

dirty, the light is then dimmed. So if the structure

is broken, the signal becomes confused. The church,

you and I, God's people, is not the light itself.

Jesus is the light. But we are called to be a

witness to the light. Our discipleship is like

cleaning the glass. Our unity is like strengthening

the structure of where we stand. Our love, our

love is like keeping the lamp visible. Our witness

as disciples of Jesus is the light of Christ

shining into the neighborhood. We do not need

to be impressive. We need to be faithful. And

for the church as a whole, for all of us here

and St Andrews and anyone else to come, our neighbourhood

does not need a perfect church. We're imperfect

people with a perfect God. It needs a faithful

church. It needs a church that is present in

the community. It needs a church that loves mixtures

of people. It needs to be a Jesus -shaped church

to be the church. So to land this, Matthew 28

gives us the commission. Go, make disciples,

baptise, teach, and remember, I am with you.

2 Corinthians 13 gives us the community shape

of that commission. We are to rejoice. We are

to be restored. We are to encourage one another.

And we are to live in peace, receive the grace

of Jesus, the love of God, and the fellowship

of the Spirit. Together, these two passages,

well, they tell us that discipleship and witness

are not separate callings. They are one and the

same. We are formed by Jesus so that we can witness

to Jesus. You and I, we are gathered in love

so that we can be sent in love. We are restored

by grace so that we can become agents of restoration.

You and I, we are filled with the Spirit so that

our life together becomes a signpost of the kingdom.

Not of St. Francis Church, but of the kingdom.

So the invitation today is not, Will you do more

for God? I want to give this invitation to this

church. Will you become more like Jesus together

for the sake of the world God loves? The work

of Christ in this place hinges on whether you'll

become more like Jesus together. No private faiths

here. for the sake of the world that God loves.

Because Jesus still says this to us. All authority

is mine, so go and make disciples. Teach them

my way, and surely I am with you always, to the

very end of the age. Amen.