What About Matthew 28:19 Study Notes
The subject of this bible study is the question: What About Matthew 28:19?
This bible study addresses the question of whether Matthew 28:19 conflicts with Acts 2:38 or compliments it.
In Matthew 28:19 Jesus stated “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Later in the book of Acts Peter preached the first sermon on the day of Pentecost concerning water baptism and said “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins”.
Is there a contradiction between the two statements???
No!
There is no contradiction in the two statements.
What Peter did when he preached the first sermon on the day of Pentecost was to fulfill rather than repeat the command of Christ, concerning water baptism.
Jesus said baptize disciples in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit.
If a person merely repeats the command of Christ he is not fulfilling the command of Christ
For Example:
Father is not a name, but rather is a title
Son is not a name, but rather is a title
Holy Spirit is not a name, but rather is a title
I am a father, a son and a husband, but those are my titles and not my name.
If you were to stand in a crowd and call father, many could answer
If you were to stand in a crowd and call son, many could answer
When Jesus resurrected Lazarus, He said Lazarus come forth, and Lazarus arose.
If Jesus had said “come forth” in a general term there would have been a wholesale resurrection of the dead!
But Jesus called his name and Lazarus arose.
To legitimately fulfill the command of Christ one must call the name of the father, the name of the son and the name of the holy spirit and not merely invoke the titles father son and holy spirit.
For the true power is in the name!
Which brings us to the question “what are these three names?”
If baptism in Jesus name in not the correct method of baptism, then you must call three names in order to accurately fulfill Matthew 28:19
But really the truth of the matter is that Jesus is the saving name of God for the New Testament
If you look at the name of Jesus in the Greek (ee-ay-sooce’)
You find it is a compound name of Hebrew origin containing the saving name of God for the Old Testament, Jehovah
The Hebrew for Jesus is yeh-ho-shoo'-ah which is from a compound name Jehovah - Yawshah
We know that Jehovah was God’s revealed name for the Old Testament, some insist on using the unpronouncable YHWH or Yahweh but for our purposes here we will consider all three the same, and the 2nd part of Jehovah Yawshah has many attributes such as:
avenging, defend, deliver (-er), help, preserve, rescue, be safe, bring (having) salvation, save (-iour), get victory.
Its interseting to note that all these attributes are found in Christ:
He is our saviour
He gets us the victory
He brings salvation
He brings us to a safe place
He rescues us
He helps us
He preserves us
He defends us
And He is our avenger
The scripture tells us in 2 cor 5:19 that , that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, and when you call the name of Jesus your calling the name of the Father because as the father was Father was in the Son reconciling himself to the world, so is the fathers name contained in the name of the Son
In Isaiah 12:2 the statement is made:
The word salvation here, where it says God is my Salvation and Yah or Jehovah has become my salvation is the Hebrew yesh-oo'-aw Which is another Hebrew form for the name JESUS
In this prophecy of Isaiah it was foretold how Jehovah would become my Jesus
So when you call the name of Jesus you are calling the name of the Father also because the Fathers name is contained in the name of Jesus
Now the Father has a name, the Son has a name but an interesting fact is that no matter how hard you look you cant find where the Holy Spirit has any other name but Jesus
When Jesus told his disciples he would be going away he made this statement in John 14 verser 15 thru 18
15 “If you love Me, £keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
John 14:15-18
In this amazing statement Jesus identifies the spirit inside of him as the Spirit of Truth, or the Holy Spirit!
Notice what he said..
The world cannot receive him – because it doesn’t see him or know him
But you know him because he dwells with you – and will be in you
That word dwell is the Greek word Meno which means to abide and be present with
In that amazing prophecy of Isaiah 12:3 we are told we will draw waters out of the wells of salvation, and that Hebrew word for salvation is that word yesh-oo'-aw
or another Hebrew form of the name Jesus!
So according to the prophet of Old we would be able to draw waters from the wells of Jesus
Again in John 14:26 we are told:
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name
So when you call on the name of Jesus your calling on the name of the Holy Spirit also because the Holy Spirit comes in Jesus name
So when Matthew 28:19 said to baptize them in the name, and please note here Jesus said name singular not names plural, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, you can now see that calling the name of Jesus fulfills the great commission and applies the saving name of God to baptismal candidates life
In Colossians 3:17 we are admonished:
And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus
Baptism is a deed, John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:11 -I indeed baptize you in water- So if baptism is a deed it should be administered in Jesus name
When a person is baptized in the lovely name of the Lord Jesus Christ they are not doing anything else but fulfilling the command of Christ in Matthew 28:19
Let me leave you with one more thought from Acts 4:12
Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name
under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Acts 4:12(NKJV)
And with this thought a question
If Colossians 3:17 declared whatever we do in jesus name why will some, pray in jesus name, heal the sick in jesus name but refuse to baptize in jesus name?
If you have never been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ I want to encourage you today to find a man of God who will joyfully baptize you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins.