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This past Sunday, we looked at the account of Jesus being presented to Simeon in the temple from Luke chapter 2, and we dove into what it means that Jesus is “the consolation of Israel.” You can watch or listen to that sermon here.
We also saw some of the parallels between Jesus and Moses, and how Moses was a type, or foreshadowing, of Jesus. After 400 years of slavery and oppression in Egypt, God’s people wondered if he had forgotten or abandoned them, and they cried out to him for deliverance. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob (Ex 2:24), and he sent them a deliverer, Moses. Similarly, after 400 years of no word from God after the death of the prophet Malachi, God’s people were weary with oppression from pagan nations, but most of all, the true believers in their midst were weary with sin. They cried out to God for deliverance. And as Joseph and Mary brought the infant Jesus into the temple to be consecrated, they met a godly man whose name was Simeon, which means, God has heard. God had not forgotten the suffering of his people, he heard their groaning, he remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he sent them Jesus, whose name means God is salvation. Moses is a type of Christ in many ways. Moses himself even prophesied the coming of Jesus: “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen . . . . And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.” (Deut 18:15-19) Jesus directly claimed to be the promised prophet of whom Moses spoke: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. . . . Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (John 5:39-47) The Jews claimed to follow Moses, but they refused to believe Jesus, and so they revealed that they did not actually believe or follow Moses at all. Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets (Matt 5:17). He is the one to whom the entirety of the Old Testament is pointing! Another way in which Jesus fulfills the typology of Moses is in the Great Commission. After bringing the people of Israel out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses, God brought them to the edge of the promised land. The people refused to obey God and enter the land, because they were afraid of the people who already lived there, and so God judged them to wander in the wilderness for forty years. When that time was completed, the next generation of God’s people were ready to cross the river, enter the land, and begin the task of defeating the pagans who lived there and settling in the land that God had promised to them. But on the eve of their entrance into the land, their leader left them. Moses died. He too had disobeyed God in the wilderness (Num 20:1-13), and so God did not allow him to go into the promised land with the people. God brought him up to the top of a mountain to see the land from afar, and then he died. It then fell to Moses’ successor Joshua to lead the people and conquer the land. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is clearly portrayed as the true Son of the Father, the one who obeys God perfectly where all others failed. He is the true and better Adam, the true and better Moses, the true and better Israel. After showing how Jesus’ life parallels the story of the nation of Israel, after his death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus meets his disciples on a mountain in Galilee. He then gives them what is known as “The Great Commission” (Matt 28:16-20), and it seems as though Jesus and his disciples are about to go out into the world to begin making disciples of all the nations. But what happens? Matthew doesn’t record it for us, but we know from Acts 1:1-11 that Jesus ascended to heaven. Their leader left them. Just like Moses left the Israelites before they began their God-given mission to conquer the promised land, so too Jesus left his disciples before they began to carry out their God-given mission to disciple all the nations. But what’s the key difference between Jesus and Moses here? The very last words Jesus speaks to his people in Matthew 28:20 are, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Jesus is absent from them physically, but he is always with them spiritually. They have been united to him in salvation, and soon, they will receive the Holy Spirit within them on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). Jesus has not abandoned them! Jesus is still very much present with his people even today, even to the end of the age. Jesus, God is salvation, is still leading his people today in the New Covenant age, just like the Old Covenant people were led by Joshua, whose name also means God is salvation. Christian, as you fight the battles that God has placed in your life, as we the church militant fight against the schemes and wiles of the enemy, as we fight the good fight of faith until Christ comes again, remember that we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Jesus is the true and better Moses; Jesus is the true and better Israel; Jesus is the true and better Joshua. We can face any obstacle, stand firm against Satan’s fiery darts, knowing that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church of Jesus Christ as we faithfully follow our Leader, our Captain, our King, Jesus Christ who died and who lives forever, because he is with us always, to the end of the age. (Eph 6:10-20; 2 Cor 10:3-5; Rom 8:31-39; Matt 16:18; Heb 2:10; Matt 28:18-20)
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In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus gave this final command to his disciples:
“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.” When I preached on this passage last week, I mentioned some of the ways in which Matthew brings his Gospel full circle:
There’s another way in which Matthew’s Gospel comes full circle: baptism. Jesus commands his disciples to make disciples, by going, baptizing, and then teaching. Baptism is the beginning of discipleship, the lifelong process of learning about Christ and becoming more like him. And when new disciples are baptized, Jesus says that they are to be baptized “in (literally into) the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. Since the very beginning, Christians have recognized that God exists as a Trinity, three Persons in one Being, and that to be baptized meant to be added into and joined with his visible body on earth, the church, through identification with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom 6:1-11). This is why Christian baptism is always done in the name (singular, not plural) of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Baptism identifies a person as a disciple of Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Godhead; and because God cannot be separated from himself, to be identified with Christ is also to be identified with the Father and the Spirit. Jesus’ command to baptize in the threefold name of the triune God is an explicit revelation of God’s nature as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So how does this tie in with the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel? Matthew 3:13-17 records Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist: Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” At the beginning of his earthly ministry, at his baptism, the Trinity is on full and glorious display for all to see. As Jesus is baptized in the river, the heavens are opened and the Spirit descends on him like a dove, and a voice from heaven, the voice of the Father, declares that Jesus is indeed his beloved Son, with whom he is well pleased. Father, Son, and Spirit together, each playing a different part in the work of redemption, yet perfectly united in being and essence. And so again at the end of Matthew, Jesus gives his disciples the command to make disciples by going, baptizing, and teaching, once again making the direct connection between baptism and God’s triune nature. Strictly speaking, baptism isn’t necessary for salvation. The thief on the cross is the classic example of this (Luke 23:39-43). Jesus didn’t need to be baptized in the sense that he commanded us, but it was still necessary for him to be baptized, “to fulfill all righteousness.” In the same way, we don’t need to undergo baptism in order to go to heaven, but it is still a direct command from our Lord Jesus. No matter what position on the timing, mode, or further significance of baptism they may hold, all Christians agree that baptism of disciples is a direct command from Christ, and must be administered in the triune name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And as we make disciples of all nations, by going, baptizing, and teaching them, always remember that we do this not in our own strength or power, but in Christ’s, because all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him, and he has promised that he will be with us always, to the end of the age. |
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