The Great Commission

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. We greet you this morning in the worthy name of Jesus. This is Easter Sunday. This is a very special day for believers. We base our faith on the fact that Jesus did raise from the dead, that the grave could not hold him, but that he arose triumphant. [00:00:37] I was planning to read Matthew 28 as the resurrection text, but since that's already risen, Even though I want to focus on the last verses of Matthew 28, let me read Mark 16, just to read another resurrection story. Now we'll notice in the way that Matthew and Mark record both the resurrection and also the commission that Jesus gave on that very day. [00:01:10] See, Jesus gave in those chapters, whether Matthew 28 or Mark 16, Jesus gave the Great Commission on the very day of his resurrection. I would think that would mean that the Great Commission is very important to Jesus, that we carry out that commission until the end of time. So this is Resurrection Sunday. The day Jesus chose to raise from the dead, and this was prophesied already from the Old Testament, how this would work out, you know, with his burial three days in the tomb and then would resurrect on this day. [00:01:54] This day is incidentally not the Jewish Sabbath day when he arose. Neither is it the Muslim holy day on Friday, but rather the day where we now as believers in the Christian church choose to call our Lord's day due to the fact that Jesus rose on the first day of the week. And that is our Lord's day. And this is very significant as we think of the way that the resurrection impacts our very walk with the Lord. [00:02:31] I remember at my baptism and baptisms that I've been a part of, a part of that, a part of our testimony during the very time when we're baptized with water is that even as Christ rose from the dead even so we can walk in newness of life so our testimony has so much to do with this resurrection day [00:03:03] and this resurrection of Jesus was clearly foretold in the Old Testament Scriptures so it should not have been a surprise to the people even though it was and also by Jesus During his time there in his earthly ministries, his earthly ministries, he walked with his disciples. He would have, I would think, have clearly informed them of what all was going to come, that this was a part of that. Let me now read Mark 16. [00:03:37] And when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome had brought sweet spices that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came into the sepulcher at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulcher? and when they looked they saw that the stone was rolled away for it was very great [00:04:07] and entering into the sepulcher they saw a young man sitting on the right side clothed in a long white garment and they were affrighted and saith unto them be not affrighted ye see Jesus of Nazareth which was crucified he is risen he is not here behold the place where they laid him but go your way tell his disciples and Peter that is that he goeth before you into Galilee there shall ye see him as he said unto you and they [00:04:39] went quickly and fled from the sepulcher and they trembled and were amazed neither said they anything to any man for they were afraid now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week he appeared first to Mary Magdalene out of whom he had cast seven devils and she went and told them that had been with him as they mourned and wept. And they, when they had heard that he was alive and had been seen of her, believed not. After that he appeared in another form unto two of them as they walked and went into the country. [00:05:15] And they went and told it unto the residue, neither believed they them. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart. Because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved But he that believeth not shall be damned [00:05:46] And these signs shall follow them that believe In my name shall they cast out devils They shall speak with new tongues They shall take up serpents And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God, and they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. [00:06:20] Now, as we read the commission here in Mark's Gospel, So, we were pulled apart as to when did Jesus say that? Did he say it on the day of ascension? Or did he say it on the day of his resurrection? Because on either side, we could take it either way. Because notice in verse 19, So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven. So we could say that this commission was given on ascension day, [00:06:52] But according to Matthew, I think that this commission was given on Resurrection Day That that was very important to Jesus Now there's some difference in the way that Matthew and Mark as well as Luke and John would give As they understood the Great Commission Mark here would say that Jesus would have said go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature Very important uses there the exercise of preaching [00:07:22] however Matthew when he gives it he emphasizes teaching will you therefore teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost and then further teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you so Matthew's focus was on teaching Mark's focus was on preaching both very important I'm more given to teaching. I would probably say this morning that I'm probably more teaching than preaching. [00:07:59] Both of those are very important in the communication of the gospel. Preaching is important because a lot of people can be addressed at the same time. And Jesus would have indicated in Matthew 24-25 that all nations need to hear and then the end would come. So, probably through preaching, those nations or ethnos would quicker receive the gospel than just through the avenue of teaching. Teaching, I appreciate teaching because that in teaching, there's dialogue. [00:08:35] The teacher can ask questions, the audience can give answers, and you can communicate there with a discussion. Whereas with preaching, like I'm here this morning, I'm pretty well doing the talking, the rest of you. are taking it in. I would have the freedom probably to ask questions, but I've not really geared it for that. So very important as we look at this Resurrection Day, we think of Passion Week, we think of what took place on Palm Sunday a week ago, [00:09:08] then what took place throughout this past week in the life of Jesus, in the life of the Jews. as all those prophetic things came to pass those different days of the week with Jesus' trial and then being led into that crucifixion and then the burial and the resurrection of course as we remember it here today. Interestingly, one third of the Gospels by chapter relate to Passion Week. [00:09:43] that's quite significant that one third of the gospels according to chapters would relate to Passion Week to events that happened this past week very significant I think as it relates to that last week of Jesus' life prior to his crucifixion and then again his resurrection but then he was here yet another 40 days The resurrection is a part of the believer's confession of faith [00:10:23] that we would walk in newness of life and also there Paul would strengthen that in his letter to the Roman church where he said that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart what? that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved so we would gather from that there is not salvation without the confession that Jesus rose from the dead very much a part of the believer's testimony [00:10:55] now we're here this morning as a very privileged people to be among those who confess Jesus and it's all part of the grace of God because Paul would say that but by the grace of God I am what I am. And I think we need to put this into perspective as it relates to us as a people. My personal testimony, our collective testimony, and we have here a people as we have already this morning in this service have verbalized our acceptance and our affirmation of the resurrection of Jesus. [00:11:36] But I think that there's something that comes into this picture that we probably are often missing when it comes to how have we or how have our people, how has our heritage come to faith? Do you think about that? Do you think about how that our people have come to faith? How did they come to faith? And also when did they come to faith? And we'll look at that more later. [00:12:08] So I think it's significant that Jesus reiterated his Great Commission on the day of resurrection. Now to me, this is not the first Great Commission. I would think, in my understanding of the heart of God, in this that his will is not that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance. And we find that in Jesus' teaching when he said that his father, that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. So God did not only speak salvation, but he also put action to it when he was willing to have his very only son be a missionary to the world at large, to humanity. [00:12:56] And I mentioned before already that I like Matthew's account because of the way that it introduces the activity of teaching. And I think that in teaching is really when we get into the personal interaction with nations, with ethnos, with people groups. And I think that teaching is important and necessary that in communicating the gospel [00:13:27] and because that he mentions the different ethnicities or nations that that's cross-cultural, that's cross-ethnic and often in that communication cross-culturally and cross-ethnic Due to the language barrier, there is difficulty in that communication. So it would seem to me that even though in preaching we preach with an interpreter, that in teaching there is more down-to-earth and more interactive communication [00:14:02] to where some of those questions that may be missed in the cross-cultural communication, not only because of the language, but also because of the culture. Cultures carry something that really need to be communicated when it comes to the culture of the kingdom of God as it is then communicated to the other cultures representing the people of this earth. So when I think of the resurrection, I also then be reminded of Mayer and Augsburger [00:14:32] where in one of his books he would refer to walking in the resurrection. So there's a life there, there's a testimony, there's a walk that is very important for us. Most time, I would think, most time, if not always, when a people come to saving faith, it involves some exercise of the Great Commission. It must involve some exercise of the Great Commission. [00:15:05] Now what is the exercise of the Great Commission? This is what it is. This is what Jesus said there in the last verses of Matthew 28. He said, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Then he says further, Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. Now that teaching them is now talking to the next group of people people beyond those that we've talked to. So we talk to a group of people, they embrace it, they take it further, another step. So that's when the teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you comes into place. [00:15:49] So I gather from that then that probably every time that a people have come to faith, there was some exercise of the Great Commission. Or someone told them, now where did our people, where did those of our Germanic background come to faith? See, we have a certain tendency to want to think that our background goes back to Europe. And then when it does, we like to think that our background would come from the Reformation, which is a very good part of our history, of our heritage. [00:16:29] When we refer back to the Reformation, when there the Anabaptist reformers were willing to take the Reformation further than the Protestant reformers. And then from there, a lot of what we believe today as an Anabaptist people was brought to light and embraced. and then of course was carried with our forebears as they came across the ocean and settled here in America. So how did our people come to faith? But realistically we need to go back much further than that. [00:17:02] We really do. We cannot stop with the Reformation because we would need to go back then to the state church when our people, our forebears were a part of the state church. We would need to go back to the dark ages when our people were there. We would need to go back, and we keep going back. We would need to go back to even further than northern or western Europe. We would need to go back. Our heritage goes back to the Middle East. [00:17:34] Now remember, our heritage is not Jewish. So it's very possible that our heritage was not kind to Jesus or was not kind to the gospel as it took fruit there in the Middle East. We go back further and we need to. I know that in my earlier time I was thinking that we put time into Bible times, we put time into time of the flood, we put time into time of creation. But there is a connection there where our very heritage goes back to Adam [00:18:09] Because Eve is the mother of all living And then we go into the time of the flood after they came out of the ark And in the table of nations there in Genesis 10 We have the sons of Noah And how all people trace their heritage back to the sons of Noah We don't have time to go into that But that's true So, our heritage goes back to the Tower of Babel. Our people, our forebears were there. They were there. They were among the confusion. They were among those who wanted to build a tower. Our forebears were. [00:18:44] Now, without going back that far, we are told that our forebears were heathen in Europe. I think that's true. So I think it places more value on the fact that Jesus rose from the dead And that message has reached us when we put ourselves as a plain people into that light That we're willing to go back to the fact that our people were at one time a heathen people [00:19:17] Now who told them? Who told them the gospel? How did those heathen people, our forebears far enough back, hear the gospel? And they say, and it's probably true, that there were missionaries that came across the Mediterranean and had the courage to engage our forebears in northern New York with the gospel. So that's, to me, very significant that we today, as we confess our belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, [00:19:50] that we can do that in the context that it's not just our plain community and as we understand ourselves here in the last decade or the last century but that we can go back and realize that indeed this resurrection power of Jesus from the dead was very significant because of what it has meant to bring salvation and faith to our people. Now Jesus early in his ministry I think he made it very clear that There would need to be a spiritual rebirth. [00:20:21] This conversation there with Nicodemus would bring that out. That he must be born again. And then again the fact that God so loved the world that he gave his only son. That whosoever believeth in him, not whosoever would once believe in him, but those who would continue to believe in him, would have everlasting life. There were questions as people were asking. You know, there's always questions that I think are addressed through teaching when it comes to how can a man be born again. Nicodemus asked that question, he didn't understand it. [00:20:57] That very thing of the new birth is beyond our natural comprehension. We go into a spirit comprehension when we entertain the thought of the new birth. How can a man be born again? And Jesus answered that. And I think that a lot of Jesus' connection with people was through those personal conversations. [00:21:28] He did it with Nicodemus. He explained it to him. And then he did it with the woman at the well. He did it with Zacchaeus. And that's why I value teaching. So we look beyond ourselves and our families and our churches to others that Jesus died and rose for. We think of the Muslim, we think of the Hindu, we think of the Buddhist who this morning do not have an alive leader. They do not have a Jesus that rose from the dead. So they're unfortunately, their leader that they adhere to, their leaders that they adhere to are dead and buried and will not resurrect again. [00:22:10] Maybe not even, well they will at the last day, but the question is to what will they resurrect? So all those people that I mentioned, the Muslim, the Islamic people, the Hindu people, the Buddhist people, and all the other cults, their only hope, as well as our only hope, is also in Jesus. That's where they need to go, to have a hope. They need to sometime in their life embrace a resurrected Jesus. so that they can walk in newness of life. [00:22:43] And many of those that I mentioned here are living in areas where it is not safe to embrace Jesus. They're living in a place of persecution. Now, going back to the all things, as I see them here in Matthew 28, and this is probably where I'll be the rest of this sermon, as I think of the all things here, this is very important, very important as we look at this. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, all ethnos, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. [00:23:14] So, with teaching, there's then the baptism. Water baptism upon confession of faith. Now, the way Matthew understood it, Jesus then would have said, teaching them. And them means those people that have just been baptized. Those people that have just come to faith. you teach them you teach them to observe all things that I commanded now what are the all things that Jesus commanded [00:23:44] well the one of the all things is that you to tell them to go tell someone else you to tell them to go and teach and baptize so that passes it on to another group of people it is the very same thing that I think Paul was saying there in your Sunday school lesson you would have maybe just a week or so ago where in his letter to Timothy said you teach men the things that you heard of me you commit that to faithful men [00:24:17] so that takes it a step further and they are then to teach others also so is there a continuity that's what Jesus had in mind here too he said that you are to teach all nations and you baptize them then to those people You are to command, teach them to observe all that Jesus taught. Now what did Jesus teach? Well, his teachings are recorded in the Gospels. So the all things here are referring to all that is recorded of Jesus' teaching in the Gospels. [00:24:52] While we may use these all things as reference to the Apostles' teachings, that is not what Jesus meant here. We say that, we say that teaching them to observe all things is referring to also the teaching of the Apostles And that's a good application But what Jesus was saying here is that the all things whatsoever I have commanded you Is referring to the Gospels of Jesus, the teaching [00:25:24] Or the Gospels as you record the teaching of Jesus So that is very important as I think of that And teaching them to observe all things I've commanded you. This is a commandment. And then to teach that so that it is passed on. And this needs to progress fast because if we realize that Jesus will not return again until all nations have heard, not all countries, that includes it, but nations, all people groups within those countries who have heard that the message of Jesus. [00:26:00] Now, what is ironic and very sad, I think, in retrospect, is there are today plain people who do not think the Great Commission to be their charge. And yet, they today are believers because someone has somewhere in their past history activated the Great Commission in the gospel coming to them. So some of the all things that we read of Jesus having commanded his disciples [00:26:34] and generally we would accept that what Jesus taught his disciples would be applicable to the Christian church today, wouldn't we? So I think that what Jesus taught his disciples as they're recorded in the four gospels that those are our teachings that we today embrace and find a place for in our way of life in our personal life, in our church life [00:27:05] because there, there's so many let me just go down the list of these and some of these are unique to the Anabaptist people some of these are not embraced by the evangelical community at large the evangelical community at large The church would pretty well write off the Beatitudes as some future kingdom. You can't practice that kind of Bible interpretation today. You can't be nonresistant today. [00:27:37] You can't turn the other cheek today. But we believe, I think part of what goes with our heritage is that we take the Bible at face value. What it says we believe. We believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible, that when we have the Beatitudes, we accept that. We accept that nonresistance is a way of life for Christian people, and that we do not take up arms, but rather that we are a people of peace. And that we find other methods to arrive at a peace, a condition of peace. [00:28:15] So we have within the teaching of Jesus, just in my time here, to just think of the Beatitudes and what all Jesus taught in that and the sacredness of marriage in the Sermon on the Mount, the nonresistance, the turning the other cheek. and Jesus also then would have taught very clearly on non-consumption. We believe in non-conformity which Jesus taught. We believe in non-resistance which Jesus taught. [00:28:46] But Jesus also taught non-consumption. That's what he meant when he said lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth but rather lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. So we're not to be consuming those funds and those benefits that come to us because of the opportunities we have in our time. Jesus also would have taught us to seek first God's kingdom because we're living in a time of two kingdoms. [00:29:16] We have an earthly kingdom and we have a heavenly kingdom. We're to seek first God's kingdom. We're to pattern our lives, our marriages, our homes after God's kingdom. There was there the motivation for inward purity. Jesus taught about divine providence, that we're to trust God, not to worry as people do or as the Gentiles do, but see the way God provides for the birds and the lilies of the field. Jesus taught us the golden rule and how we relate to other people. [00:29:51] We do unto others as we would want them to do unto us. Not only do we have two ways, the narrow way and the broad way, but those two ways lead to two destinies. And that's the greater challenge is that those two ways lead to two destinies, eternal destinies, final destinies. The narrow way leads to heaven and the broad way leads to destruction eternally. Jesus taught about the house built in a rock, the importance of a foundation. [00:30:26] And that foundation is important whether it's a foundation for our home, our marriage, any institution that we're a part of, even the institution of the church, the visible church as we are here with the varied congregations. Those need to have foundations. He taught about the end time. He taught about the parable of the sower, or gave the parable of the sower. You know, in our work of evangelism and the way that seed is given out and always our prayer that it would be seed that would land on good soil. [00:30:58] He taught about gain through loss. You know, what is it if a man would gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Jesus taught that. He taught cross-bearing, being willing to take up our cross and to follow Him He gave the commission to the seventy and sent them out He said that the harvest is great, but the labors are few He gave the parable of the Good Samaritan and just our need to be compassionate to those unfortunate ones that lose their way [00:31:30] and find themselves along the way injured and hurt and in pain He gave the lesson on the good shepherd and just the comfort that brings us the good shepherd that we have today a shepherd that loves us, that cares for us and will be there for us. There's also that abiding in the vine that He taught to His disciples there just prior to His crucifixion and Passion Week. [00:32:03] Let me then read just again for hopefully an impression upon us as we see what Jesus here gave on the day of His resurrection. He said, All power is given unto Me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Ghost. But it doesn't stop there. Those people now that you have taught and have baptized, As those people, you teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. [00:32:39] And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Let us kneel to pray.