Audio recording Sermon manuscript: Linda chose the hymns that we are singing today. She also made known a favorite bible passage of hers that I’d like to speak about. It was in our Gospel reading: Jesus said, “Surely, I am with you always until the end of the age.” It is important to take into account when Jesus spoke these words to properly understand their meaning.  They come at the very end of Matthew’s Gospel. In fact, they are the very last words of the book that the apostle Matthew wrote. So prior to this Matthew had already written about many things that he saw and heard concerning Jesus. Already he has told of Jesus’s baptism, his casting out of demons, his healing of the sick, and his teachings. The last several chapters of this book speak about just one week of time—holy week. Jesus was arrested, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. On the third day he rose from the dead and appeared to his apostles on several different occasions. The Gospel reading that you heard this morning is one of those occasions. The resurrected Jesus appeared to the eleven disciples (because Judas Iscariot was no more) on a mountain in Galilee. When they saw him they worshipped him, but they weren’t all so believing and certain as they would have liked to have been. These were strange and difficult times for the apostles. Then Jesus said this to them: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and gather disciples from all nations by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and by teaching them to keep all the instructions I have given you. And surely I am with you always until the end of the age.” Sometimes these words are called the great commission. The reason why they are called that is because what Jesus says here is a nice summary of what the resurrected Lord Jesus would like his disciples to go do. He commissions them to make disciples, by baptizing in the name of the Triune God, by teaching people what Jesus had taught them. Then we have those words that Linda said were her favorite: “Surely, I am with you always until the end of the age.” What these words indicate is that it was not as though Jesus were passing the baton to the disciples with this commission and now it was all up to them. Through that very baptizing and teaching whereby disciples are made, Jesus would be with those who did these things and with those who received these things. It is also important that we understand the nature of these things that Jesus has commissioned his disciples to do. These things are truly unlike all other things. Jesus’s baptism is a washing of rebirth and renewal. It has divine power. Baptism communicates and delivers the forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this as Christ’s words and promises declare. For Jesus says, “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved. Whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Jesus’s teachings, also, are not just words or philosophies or even merely commandments. Jesus’s words have life and healing in them. Just as Jesus was able to heal and save and raise from the dead simply by speaking, so also his words have just as much divine power today. They deliver what they say. Those who hear him when he says to them that he is the good shepherd, have a good shepherd indeed. Those who hear and believe that he is the light of the world will never walk in darkness. Whoever lives and believes in him will never die. So when Jesus says to his disciples, “Surely, I am with you always until the end of the age,” it is not merely a matter of someone being near, or someone holding one’s hand. This is the Son of God that we are talking about here. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. And all that power and authority is directed towards one thing—the salvation of sinners: sinners like Linda, sinners like you. The reason why God