Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 16:15
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
15. And he said unto them ] St John informs us that on this occasion the Risen Saviour breathed on the Apostles, and gave them a foretaste of the bestowal of the Holy Ghost, with power to remit sin and retain sin. St Mark tells us of very important words, which He went on to utter, anticipating the final charge recorded by St Matthew (Mat 28:16-20).
Go ye into all the world ] Or, as it is expressed in St Matthew’s Gospel, “ make disciples of all nations ” (Mat 28:19), and comp. Luk 24:47; Act 1:8. Contrast these injunctions with those to the Twelve during His earthly ministry, Mat 10:5-6, “ Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
every creature ] i. e. to the whole creation, the whole world of men, not Jews only or Samaritans, but Gentiles of all nations. Comp. Rom 8:21-22.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Into all the world – To the Gentiles as well as the Jews. It was contrary to the opinions of the Jews that the Gentiles should be admitted to the privileges of the Messiahs kingdom, or that the partition wall between them should be broken down. See Act 22:21-22. It was long before the disciples could be trained to the belief that the gospel was to be preached to all men; and it was only by special revelation, even after this command, that Peter preached to the Gentile centurion, Acts 10; Jesus has graciously ordered that the preaching of the gospel shall be stopped by no barriers. Wherever there is man, there it is to be proclaimed. To every sinner he offers life, and all the world is included in the message of mercy, and every child of Adam is offered eternal salvation.
Preach – Proclaim; make known; offer. To do this to every creature is to offer pardon and eternal life to him on the terms of the plan of mercy – through repentance, and faith in the Lord Jesus.
The gospel – The good news. The tidings of salvation. The assurance that the Messiah has come, and that sin may be forgiven and the soul saved.
To every creature – That is, to every human being. Man has no right to limit this offer to any class of men. God commands his servants to offer the salvation to all men. If they reject, it is at their peril. God is not to blame if they do not choose to be saved. His mercy is manifest; his grace is boundless in offering life to a creature so guilty as man.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mar 16:15
Go ye into an the world and preach the gospel.
Christs commission to His apostles
I. The work. Preaching the gospel.
1. Speaking. Much of the real and useful work of life is wrought by words. They are the tools of almost every worker in some department of his toil. In preaching the gospel they are the chief agency.
2. The gospel. Gospel, in the lips of Jesus, represented facts in the eternal past and in the eternal future-promises, predictions, His own history, dispensations of the grace of God, and certain aspects of the government of God; and gospel, to the ears of the eleven, represented the same central truths, with the outlying truths unrevealed, so that they could not mistake what Jesus meant when He said, Preach the gospel.
3. A new work this. Not preaching merely-that was old enough; but preaching the gospel.
4. A Divine work. Commenced by God Himself. A work which claims high esteem for all engaged in it; a work in which the loftiest ambition may be satiated; a work whose results surpass in blessedness the creation of earth and heaven.
II. The workmen.
1. Men of little refinement or education. This gave them sympathy with the common people, if not influence over them.
2. Men of ordinary secular occupations.
3. Great varieties of natural character among them. No two were alike. Yet these very different men were called to do the same work. The same gospel may be preached in very different styles with equal success.
4. They had received special training for their special work. As more was expected from them than from others, more had been done for them.
5. Yet they were far from being perfect men. Just before this commission was addressed to them they were upbraided by Christ with their unbelief and hardness of heart. A perfect man or a perfect preacher is not necessary for the preaching of a perfect gospel.
6. Although not perfect men, they were men to whom special promises were made-promises of the presence of Christ and of the Holy Ghost-promises of power.
7. They were representative men, foundation men, men who had to begin what others should carry on.
III. The sphere of work. The whole world. No limitations of country or climate; no distinctions of barbarism and civilization, bondage and freedom, preparedness or otherwise of particular peoples. Wherever there were men these workmen were to go. Every creature-for every creature hath sinned, and every creature is guilty before God, and every creature is going astray, and every creature is liable to punishment. For every creature there is gospel enough and to spare. What a glorious sphere for working-the world, man, men, all men, every creature! And what work! These workmen are builders of a temple that shall fill the world, and stewards of wealth which shall enrich the world, and ambassadors upon an errand of supreme importance to the world, and sowers in the field of the world, by whose agency the wilderness shall become a fruitful field, men shall be reconciled to God, the poor shall become heirs of God, and the tabernacle of God, etc. (Rev 21:3-4).
IV. The master of the workmen. He who saith Go, came into the world. He who saith Go ye, Himself came: came not by deputy or proxy, but Himself came. He who saith Go ye and preach, Himself preached. He who saith Go ye and preach the gospel, is the gospel. He who saith Go into the world to every creature, is the propitiation for the sins of the world. With such a Master the lack of willing workmen is truly wonderful. Shall we neglect to obey? Shall we undervalue obedience as a means of redemption to others? All cannot preach, but all can repeat the faithful saying, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and all can unite in sending forth men qualified to preach, and in sustaining such men by contributions of property, by manifestations of sympathy, and by prayer. (S. Martin, D. D.)
Missionary zeal
A ragged school teacher went out into the lanes of our city to bring in neglected children. He found a child, the very incarnation of wickedness and wretchedness, and led her to the school. There she heard expounded and applied the parable of the prodigal son. Shortly after the child was seized by fever, and the teacher visited her. In one of his visits he read this parable, and when he came to the words, When he was yet a great way off his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, the child exclaimed, Ah, that was just like me! Thats good; say it again-a great way off! What, ever so far, away, away, like me with the devil? That must be far from God and the Lamb. Yes! I was a great way off. How good! how kind! But Im afraid! have been worse than that bad son. Still, I have said Dear Jesus, I want to love you, I want to get away from the devil; please help me. And I think He heard me, for I have felt somehow different ever since. I am not afraid now; no, not one bit. When death was so near that it was supposed that all power of utterance was gone, she aroused herself, and said, in a clear and distinct voice, evidently referring to destitute children allowed still to wander through the streets and lanes of the city: Fetch them in; oh, be sure and fetch them in! Fetch them in and tell them of Jesus, tell them of Jesus; oh, be sure and fetch them in. (S. Martin, D. D.)
The apostolic commission
I. This commission is most important in its nature. Consider-
1. Its Divine origin.
2. Its adaptation to the circumstances of mankind.
3. Its efficiency.
4. Its individuality.
One and the same salvation for all and each. One common remedy for the universal disease. If there were some given place where all must needs be, and many roads led to it. It would not be essentially important which we took; but if there were but one road which would conduct the traveller to the place where all should be, how carefully should that road be sought! And is not Christ the only way to heaven?
II. This commission is legitimate in its authority. It is the command of the King of kings, and Lord of lords. And His authority is twofold.
1. It is official-by delegation from His Father.
2. It is essential. Authority without control.
III. This commission is official in its execution. It is to be done by preaching. There is a special commission for those sent out to preach.
1. The preacher must have a personal realization of the benefits of the gospel in his own heart. How can an unbeliever inculcate faith? How can an impenitent man call sinners to repentance?
2. The preacher must have an ardent love to the fallen souls of men.
3. He must have a solemn, heartfelt impression, that the Author of the gospel requires this at his hands.
4. He must have suitable qualifications.
5. He must have the sanction of his brethren in the ministry.
IV. This commission is universal in its extent.
1. Universal in point of place.
2. Universal in point of persons.
Conclusion:
1. This subject enables us to meet the infidel objection which is urged against the gospel on the ground of its partial diffusion. This is not Gods fault. He commands that His salvation be proclaimed to the ends of the world.
2. How loud is the call on our gratitude that the gospel has been proclaimed to us.
3. How imperative is the obligation that we hand it on to others. (R. Newton.)
Reasons for the preaching of the gospel
I. The world knows not God. By its own wisdom it cannot find Him out. Instruction needed which God alone can impart. God has imparted the knowledge of Divine things to some, and ordered them to convey that knowledge to the rest of the world.
II. The temporal miseries of the heathen are very great. To what torture do they submit in their blind devotion to false gods! Hasten to lead them out of their ignorance and superstition into the light of the knowledge of the only true God.
III. The woe that awaits them beyond the grave. What an education for eternity is theirs!
IV. The Gospel is the power of God to everyone who receives it. (H. Townley.)
The duty of Christians with respect to missions
I. The nature of this command.
II. The extent of this command.
III. The period when this command was given. (J. Langley, M. A.)
Good news for you
I. The Gospel is a revelation of love. Is there not sunshine enough in the sky for your daily paths, and is there not enough water in the ocean to bear your small craft? The love of God is like the sunshine, and His goodness is like the ocean; there is enough for you; and if you will but take the gospel as meant for you, His great love shall be shed abroad in your heart by the power of the Holy Ghost.
II. The Gospel also is a provision of peace. It takes the sting from trouble; it takes the pain from sickness; it breathes to all, hope, paradise, joy. And it imparts peace at all times. Wherever you are, whatsoever you may be, and through whatever you may pass, the gospel gives you a peace that sustains you safely. Like yonder impregnable British fortress at Gibraltar, so Gods peace shall keep you. The waves may dash against that ancient fortress, and guns may burst their fireballs upon it, but that rock is impregnable; held by British hearts it shall stand against all the foes of the world. So Gods peace shall enter your soul, and keep you in all the trials and storms of life.
III. The Gospel is a call to liberty. What is it that causes men to feel the pain of guilt? it is that they are afraid of being discovered; they are afraid of men pointing the finger of scorn at them. But how blessed to know that when we stand before the bar of God all our sins shall be blotted out.
IV. The Gospel is an inspiration of power. It tells us that the Lord shall stand up in your heart and raise a standard, which shall hurl back the flood of sin. However great the torrent may be the Lord shall breathe power to check it.
V. The Gospel is the inspiration of power to be holy. We cannot in our own strength run the heavenly race; but Jesus enters into us, abides in our hearts, and gives us His own almighty strength.
VI. The Gospel also offers a present joy. Blessings, mercies, pardon, peace-all to be had now.
VII. The Gospel constrains us to love God, and to live holy lives, by the most powerful motive. What can constrain us like the love of Jesus? (W. Birch.)
Life in the gospel
I. The Gospel is brought to us by Jesus, our kinsman.
II. In the Gospel Jesus reveals to us the character of God. When you hold a magnet to a little bit of steel the two are drawn together, on account of some mysterious affinity between them. So, when a sincere mind examines the way to God pointed out by Jesus in the Gospel, and we are true as steel to the Saviour magnet, we are drawn to the breast of our God.
III. The chief gem of the Gospel is, that every human being is forgiven. We forgive men after they have begged us to do so, but God forgives men before they ask.
IV. Every man who sincerely believes the Gospel shall be saved from the power of his sin. Salvation is not a varnish to hide our blemishes; it is a new spirit which roots out every sin.
V. The Gospel is for every man. (W. Birch.)
Preach, preach, preach everywhere
I. What it is that we have to carry to every creature. The great truth that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. What is meant by the word preach? Its meaning is extensive. It includes all church work for the spread of the gospel.
II. What is the extent of this commission? No limit as to where this gospel is to be preached. No limit as to the persons to whom it is to be preached.
III. The inducement to enlist in this service and obey this command. God has said it. It is a delight to God. By it the elect are to be gathered out. We should do it for our own sakes. Because Jesus wills it.
IV. What powers have we to work with and how can we do it? If all cannot preach, yet they may either teach the young or influence their own households. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Up, guards, and at them
Search ye out, and look what you can do, and whatsoever your hand findeth to do, do with all your might, for the grave will soon open for you, and there is no work nor device in the grave whither you are hastening. Up, guards, and at them, was said in the day of battle, and I may say it to every Christian. We shall not bless the world by big schemes, mighty theories, gigantic plans. Little by little grows the coral reef on which afterwards gardens are to be planted. Little by little must the kingdom come, each man bringing his mite and laying it down at Jesus feet. So breaks the light. Beam by beam it comes. One by one come the arrows from the bow of the sun, and at last darkness flies. So, so must break the everlasting morn. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Compel them to come in
He would be a poor sportsman who would sit in his house and expect the game to come to him. He that would have it must go abroad for it, and he that would serve his Master must go into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A great work
Oh, church of God! thy Lord has given thee a work almost as immense as the creation of a world; nay, it is a greater work than that; it is to recreate a world. What canst thou do in this? Thou canst do nothing effectively unless the Holy Spirit shall bless what thou attemptest to do. But that He wilt do, and if thou dost gird up thy loins, and thy heart be warm in this endeavour, thou shalt yet be able to preach Jesus Christ to every creature under heaven. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The great commission
I. It is implied that there is at last a Gospel in the world; not a history merely, not a philosophy, but a gospel-a way of salvation for dying men; a finished thing, to which nothing is to be added, and from which nothing is to be taken.
II. This commission to preach the gospel to all the world also implies the continuity of the Church as a preaching, teaching body.
III. The extension and establishment of the gospel through the world, till it everywhere comes to be a dominant power in society, is an obligation on our part in whatever light we examine it.
1. Consider the gospel as related to whatever is best in human civilization. Civilization is but a secular name for Christianity itself. Popular education comes from the gospel. As the dignity of man is realized there comes a liberalizing of government, and tyrannic dynasties are overthrown. Domestic felicity, literature and art, are aided by the gospel.
2. But beyond all this look at the spiritual wants of man to which the gospel ministers. It transfigures mans whole life.
3. Recall the new impressions which we ourselves have received of the greatness and value of the gospel. We have felt its inspiring energy in our own hearts.
4. Thus we enter the fellowship of the noblest souls of earth-a society grander than that of a mere intellectual companionship-even with the ancient martyrs. But best of all, the execution of this great commission brings us into fellowship with Jesus Christ, in His unique and royal work. (R. S. Storrs, D. D.)
Every Christian a preacher
It is often said that there are not preachers enough to meet the demands of the land and of the world. That may be true. But every living Christian is a preacher. Every prayerful, earnest, godly life is a sermon. There are a hundred ways of preaching Jesus without choosing a Bible text or standing in a pulpit. A Wilberforce could proclaim the gospel of love on the floor of the British Parliament, even though he wore no surplice and never had a bishops hand laid upon his honoured head. George H. Stuart was an apostle of the cross when he organized the Christian commission for soldiers tents; and John Macgregor was another when he organized the Shoe-black Brigades in the streets of London. Hannah More preached Christ in the drawing room, and Elizabeth Fry in prison cells, and Florence Nightingale in the hospitals, and Sarah F. Smiley among the negro freedmen of the South. Our Master scatters His commissions very widely. Harlan Page dropping the tract and the kind word through the city workshops; John Wanamaker, the Christian merchant, mustering poor children into his Bethany mission house; James Lennox, giving his gold to build churches and hospitals; the Dairymans Daughter, murmuring the name of Jesus with her faint, dying voice; George Muller, housing and feeding Gods orphans-all these were effective and powerful preachers of the glorious gospel of the Son of God. There is a poor needlewoman in my congregation whose unselfish, cheerful, holy life impresses me as much as any pulpit message of mine can possibly impress her. A true and noble life is the mightiest of discourses. It is the sermons in shoes that must convert the world to Jesus, if it is ever to be converted. (Dr. Cuyler.)
To every creature
Christs own word for it, come with me to that scene in Jerusalem where the disciples are bidding Him farewell. Calvary, with all its horrors, is behind Him; Gethsemane is over, and Pilates judgment hall. He has passed the grave, and is about to take His place at the right hand of the Father. Around Him stands His little band of disciples, the little church He was to leave to be His witnesses. The hour of parting has come, and He has some last words for them. Is He thinking about Himself in these closing moments? Is He thinking about the throne that is waiting Him, and the Fathers smile that will welcome Him to heaven? Is He going over in memory the scenes of the past; or is He thinking of the friends who have followed Him so far, who will miss Him so much when He is gone? No, He is thinking about you. You imagined He would think of those who loved Him? No, sinner, He thought of you then. He thought of His enemies, those who shunned Him, those who despised Him, those who killed Him-He thought what more He could do for them. He thought of those who world hate Him, of those who would have none of His gospel, of those who would say it was too good to be true, of those who would make excuse that He never died for them. And then turning to His disciples, His heart just bursting with compassion, He gives them His farewell charge: Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. They are almost His last words, to every creature. (D. L. Moody.)
Preach the gospel
When we ask in these days what does this injunction mean, the answers which come to us, from within and from without the Church, are many and discordant. As in the earliest times of Christianity there were pseudo-gospels, counterfeits, and forgeries, so it is now.
I. Among these pseudo-gospels outside the pale of the Church we have-
1. The gospel of reason; the idea that man, by his own mental power, is rapidly acquiring a newer and truer wisdom, which is to make the world happier and better than it has ever been. It is a religion of the head, not the heart; it cannot therefore apprehend spiritual verities.
2. The easy, plausible gospel of universal toleration and philanthropy, which assumes and abuses the sacred name of love. Indifferent altogether for truth, caring only for expediency. Anything for peace.
3. The gospel of sentiment-the religion which very much resembles those pictures in which the cross is almost hidden by gay coloured flowers-satisfying itself with music, sensational preaching, controversial reading, and much speaking, but shirking the plain uninteresting duties of daily life, and doing no real work for others, for the soul, and for God.
4. The gospel of wealth, pleasure, honour, authority, believing (so falsely) that a mans life consists in the abundance of the things he possesses.
II. And then, within the Church, how many gospels? Alas, what sore surprise and sorrow would vex the righteous soul of one of those who lived in the earlier, happier days of our faith could he re-visit this world and witness our unhappy divisions! What has become, he would say, of the apostles doctrine and fellowship? How the seamless robe of our crucified Lord is rent and torn; and that, not by declared enemies, but by professed friends!
III. What, then, are we to preach? We must appeal to two friends, whom we shall find in every heart; two allies who will help us; two witnesses who will come into court.
(1) Love and
(2) fear.
Let all seek Christ as their Saviour, lest they tremble when He comes to be their Judge. (S. R. Hole, M. A.)
Missionary work for all Christians
After these words were spoken, the missionary duty of the Church, in its nearest and remotest extent, was as little a matter of doubt as the resurrection. A thousand other things it may do or neglect; may have elaborate organization or none; may build cathedrals, or pitch tents; may master all learning and art, or know nothing save Christ and Him crucified; but go it must, and preach it must, or it is not Christs Church. You little children who love Jesus must tell others of His love. You rich men must work through your money; you wise men by your wisdom; you poor uncultured souls through your prayers. Unless you do your utmost to spread the kingdom, you disobey the first law of the kingdom; unless your love reaches out to all men, you have not the spirit of Christ, who died for all. A positive belief and a missionary spirit have long ago been proved the indispensable characteristics of a living Church. The Lord speaks in tender tones to rouse our sympathy for those who are perishing for lack of knowledge. He unfolds the magnificent conception of the empire of holy love, exalting the continents and blessing the isles. He stands in the midst of these unredeemed millions and says: Come. Lo! I am waiting for you here. But behind all invitations stands the command, Go, preach; and above them all rises the judgment, for us and for them, with its eternal blessedness and eternal woe. (C. M. Southgate.)
Go
I hope, says Mr. Knibb, of St. Petersburg, in a letter, the subject of devoting ourselves and our children to God and to His service will be more thought of, and more acted upon, than it has been hitherto. I am more and more convinced that, if St. Paul had ever preached from this particular text, he would have laid great stress on the word go. On your peril do not substitute another word for go. Preach is a good word; direct is a good word; collect is a good word; give is a good word. They are all important in their places, and cannot be dispensed with. The Lord bless and prosper those who are so engaged, but still lay the stress on the word go; for how can they hear without a preacher, and how can they preach except they be sent? Six hundred millions of the human race are perishing, and there are perhaps thirty among all the Christians in Britain who are at this moment preparing to go!
The commission
Words of strong authority from the captain to the soldier; from master to servant; from Redeemer to redeemed; from king to subject. No doubt as to possibility, no discussing of dangers, no calculating of results-Go! Great oceans, high mountains, wide deserts are in the way; shipwreck, fever, starvation, death-Go! The people are brutish and hard of heart; they have slain the Lord; they will not hear the disciple-Go! I am but a child, a man of unclean lips; I forsook the Lord and fled; I denied Him Go! (C. M. Southgate.)
Go ye into all the world.
Peculiarity of Christianity
There is one feature of Christianity which must strike the mind of every observer, viz., that no other system of religion in the world is missionary. They all limit themselves to the people, country, and clime where they have grown. Where are the missionaries of the religions of China, India, Africa, Persia, or Japan? But no sooner was Christianity introduced into the world than it sent forth its agencies beyond the place of its introduction. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the utmost parts of the earth are the scope of its operations. Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature, is the command of the Spirit to all its agents. And hence Christianity has its agents, institutions, literature, and means in every quarter of the globe. What does this prove for Christianity? That, as a system of religion, it is nobler, grander, more benevolent and diffusive than any other; and the success which has crowned Christianity wherever it has gone demonstrates that it is Divine in its origin; adapted to all minds, hearts, lives, and countries; civilizing, meliorating, saving, and beautifying in its effects; and the only religion which can restore a fallen world to its glorious Creator and God. (John Bate.)
A strange messenger
A professional diver said he had in hi, house what would probably strike a visitor as a very strange chimney ornament-the shells of an oyster holding fast a piece of printed paper. The possessor of this ornament was diving on the coast, when he observed at the bottom of the sea this oyster on a rock, with a piece of paper in its mouth, which he detached, and commenced to read through the goggles of his headdress. It was a gospel tract, and, coming to him thus strangely and unexpectedly, so impressed his unconverted heart, that he said, I can hold out against Gods mercy in Christ no longer, since it pursues me thus. He became, whilst in the oceans depth, a repentant, converted, and (as he was assured) sin-forgiven man. Saved at the bottom of the sea.
Universality of the message
The apostles understood their commission to be general and indiscriminate for every creature; so they received it from Him who laid the foundation of such an extensive ministration by tasting death for every man. Accordingly, they went forth on their commission, to preach the gospel to all the world. They did not square their message by any human system of theology, nor measure their language to the lines of Procrustean creeds. They employed a dialect that traverses the length and breadth of the world. They did not tremble for such an unreserved exhibition of the ark and the mercy seat. They could not bring themselves to stint the remedy which was prepared and intended to restore a dying world, nor would they cramp the bow which God had lighted up in the storm which threatened all mankind. (Dr. T. W. Jenkyn.)
The Churchs orders
During the American war, a regiment received orders to plant some heavy guns on the top of a very steep hill. The soldiers dragged them to the base of the hill, but were unable to get them any farther. An officer, learning the state of affairs, said, Men, it must be done! I have the orders in my pocket. So the Church has orders to discipline the world.
Progress of missions
We sometimes complain of the slow progress of missions, as though nothing had been done. Is it nothing that the Church has been aroused to her duty? that every large branch of Zion has her missionary organization? that these amount to eighty? that four thousand missionaries are in the field? that the Word of God is preached in fifteen thousand localities of the heathen world? ten million dollars are collected annually to sustain these missions? that six hundred and eighty-seven thousand converts are enrolled in Africa, and seven hundred and thirteen thousand in Asia? and that, if we add to these the fruits of the Romish missions, we shall number Christians by the million in the heathen world? (Bp. H. M. Thompson.)
The universal gospel
The late Duke of Wellington once met a young clergyman, who, being aware of his Graces former residence in the East, and of his familiarity with the ignorance and obstinacy of the Hindoos in support of their false religion, gravely proposed the following question: Does not your Grace think it almost useless and absurd to preach the gospel to the Hindoos? The Duke immediately rejoined: Look, sir, to your marching orders, Preach the gospel to every creature.
Success of missions
Carey and his compeers, the first English Baptist missionaries, laboured seven years before the first Hindoo convert was baptized. Judson toiled on for years without any fruit of his labour, until the few churches in this land which sustained him began to be disheartened. He wrote, Beg the churches to have patience. If a ship were here to carry me to any part of the world, I would not leave my field. Tell the brethren success is as certain as the promise of a faithful God can make it. The mission was commenced in 1814. In 1870 there were more than a hundred thousand converts.
Vivifying effects of missions
As Peter walked at eventide, his lengthened shadow, as it fell on the gathered sick in the streets of Jerusalem, healed as it swept over them; even so is Christianity going through the earth like a spirit of health, and the nations, miserable and fallen, start up and live as she passes. (F. F. Trench.)
The duty and results of preaching the gospel
I. The extent of our commission.
1. All the world-because all the world is involved in transgression.
(1) We learn this from Scripture (Rom 3:19; Rom 3:23; Rom 5:12).
(2) Experience confirms this. All the foundations of the world are out of course.
2. All the world-because mans wants are everywhere the same. All need pardon; all need enlightenment; all need peace.
3. All the world-because God has designed to collect a people for Himself from all the tribes and families of men.
II. The object of our embassy. To preach the gospel-the glad tidings of mercy and grace.
1. The gospel must be preached faithfully. Nothing of our own put in; nothing of Gods left out.
2. The gospel must be preached affectionately. Not to drive men away, but to gather them in; not to terrify, but to console.
3. The gospel must be preached in complete and entire dependence upon the grace of Christ.
III. The results that will attend the acceptance or rejection of our message. None can perish but by their own fault. (George Weight.)
The obligations and requirements of the gospel
I. The nature of the Christian ministers commission. To preach the gospel, explain its doctrines, to enforce its precepts, to proclaim its promises, and to denounce its threatenings.
II. The end or design of the Christian ministers commission. To preach the gospel in all the world and to every creature.
1. This implies that all mankind stand in need of the gospel.
2. It implies universality of design on the part of God to bestow the benefits of the gospel on those who receive it.
3. It implies universal grace and efficiency as accompanying the ministry of the gospel to render it effectual for the salvation of all.
4. It implies an obligation on the part of the Church to send its ministers literally into all the world and to every creature.
III. The requirements of the Gospel from those to whom it is preached.
1. The gospel requires faith from those to whom it is preached. Saving faith consists of two parts.
(1) The faith by which the sinner is justified. And in this there are three distinct acts.
(i) The assent of the understanding.
(ii) The consent of the will.
(iii) The souls repose and reliance upon Christ for pardon.
(2) The faith by which the Christian daily lives. Trust. Confidence in God, leading to prompt and willing obedience.
2. Baptism. The duties imposed upon all baptized are-
(1) To maintain an open connection with the Church.
(2) To defend the cause of Christ against all adversaries.
(3) To live a holy life.
IV. The results of the reception or rejection of the Gospel. (E. Grindrod.)
The duty of spreading the gospel
Huber, the great naturalist, tells us that if a single wasp discovers a deposit of honey or other food, he will return and impart the good news to his companions, who will then sally forth in great numbers to partake of the fare which has been discovered for them. Shall we who have found honey in the rock Christ Jesus be less considerate of our fellow men than wasps are of their fellow insects? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The gospel for every creature
I heard of a woman once who thought that there was no promise in the Bible for her; they were all for other people. One day she got a letter, and, when she opened it, found it was not for her at all, but for some other woman of the same name. It led her to ask herself, If I should find some promise in the Bible directed to me, how should I know that it meant me, and not some other woman? And she found out that she must just take God at His word, and include herself among the whosoevers and the every creatures to whom the gospel is freely preached. (D. L. Moody.)
The great commission:-Christianity and missions are inseparable
A Christian is one who professes to obey Jesus. Jesus has distinctly told us to go and preach the gospel throughout the world; therefore, whatever objections may be brought against Christian missions, are really brought against the authority of Christ and against Christianity itself. The Christian who opposes Christian missions is an anomaly. Some philosophers may say that Christianity is unsuited to the circumstances of every nation. Some philanthropists may say there is a bettor method of doing good to the world; some patriots may say that all we can do should be done in our own country; some politicians may say that it is unwise to interfere with the established institutions of other countries; some practical men may say the results accomplished are not worth the pains taken. Now, if we have no distinct reply to any of these objections, it is sufficient that we are under the orders of Christ, and those orders we must comply with. Suppose that when the commander-in-chief of an army calls his officers to him and says: You are to storm every battery, to attack every position, of the enemy, then the subordinate officers were to say: I cant see the reason of this; theres an insuperable difficulty yonder; we had better delay the execution of the command. It would be monstrous, although it might be that your commander is mistaken, or perhaps the command itself is ambiguous. But in this case the command is not ambiguous; nothing could be more clear-go; go everywhere, go everywhere and preach; preach the gospel to everyone. Nothing could be plainer. And then there is great emphasis given to the command by the circumstances under which it was uttered. A command in battle may be given in the time of conflict, and at the order may be mistaken; but this command was not given under the excitement of conflict; the conflict was over, the battle finished, the victory over death had been won, and calmly, as by a conqueror, this word of command was given. We think much of the last words of anyone who addresses us. These are Christs last words: there is great emphasis about them. Part of Christs work was complete, the great work of offering a sacrifice for the world; but part of Christs work was not complete, the work of publishing the gospel. His own personal ministry was limited-in locality, in time-it only extended over Palestine, and only lasted three years. But the ministry of Christ in the publication of His gospel was to be continued through the agency of His Church.
I. What? what is it we have to do?
1. Preach the gospel. The world had to be possessed for Christ. By the employment of what weapons? Shall swords and spears be collected, soldiers trained, armies organized? Preach the gospel. Shall the arts of diplomacy be used? Shall statesmen and rulers be upraised so that they may pass laws by which whole communities under their influence shall be gathered, at least outwardly, into the Church? Preach the gospel. Shall the servants of Christ be engaged to amass wealth, so that by money-which is said to be able to do everything-we may purchase the adhesion of the world? Preach the gospel. Disdaining these carnal methods referred to, shall we apply ourselves to other methods more spiritual? Shall we apply ourselves to philosophy? Shall we take ourselves to the current theories of the day, and try to overcome the prejudices of the learned, and win the intellect of the wise? Preach the gospel.
2. What, then, is this gospel? Good news. That, then, is the gospel-the Saviour-Christ. And this gospel is to be preached-not displayed in outward forms and mystic ceremonies, as the ceremonies of the Old Testament indicated typically the glory that was to come. Go and preach it, declare the truth, speak it to mens minds, that it may enter their hearts.
3. But why should it be preached by men? Why should it not have been made known by some supernatural, miraculous manner to everyone? Why the delay connected with preaching? There are mysteries we cannot solve. The arts and sciences have been left for man to work out. God gives us the materials for food-we prepare them; provides the land-we have to cultivate it; gives salvation-we have to accept it; the gospel message-we have to propagate it. Then, again, we might say our own spiritual culture requires this work; it would be an injurious thing for us if we had not this work to do. It is not likely we can understand all the mysteries of the Divine procedure, but there is the distinct precept we have to obey. Preach the gospel.
II. Why? Ancient predictions prepared us for this commission. Some say-we all say-charity begins at home, so the commission runs, beginning at Jerusalem. The apostles unfurled the banner of the cross at Jerusalem, and then went forth displaying it before all the world. Very soon after they began to preach at Jerusalem the gospel was proclaimed at Damascus, Ephesus, Athens, Rome, and afterwards it extended to Macedonia, Spain, and Britain. Does someone say our own country needs all we can do to benefit mankind, all our efforts and all our money, let us wait till all evil is rectified in our own land? Then I would ask who are doing the most for their own land; are they not generally found to be those who are doing most for other lands? But cannot man be saved without hearing the gospel? Why therefore go to them? That might be said with reference to people here in England. Why preach at home? If the objection holds good in one case, it would hold good in the other. Go into all the world. But dont you increase the responsibility of a nation when you make known to them the gospel, supposing they reject it? Is not the man more guilty the more he knows? Such an objection would apply equally to preaching at home, so we should have no preaching at all. But if one country in the world is well adapted for this particular system of truth, there are other countries that are altogether different from that country, and what is fit for it cannot be good for the other. Go ye into all the world. We keep to our commission; the command is very clear. Well, but some countries are too cold; their icy mountains frown away the fanatics who would go to those shivering wretches gorging their blubber in their snow huts to try and explain to them the mysteries of Christianity, Go into all the world. But some countries are too hot; the burning suns, scorching blast, and arid deserts forbid the things that are suited to temperate climes. Go into all the world. But some nations are highly civilized, and dont need your gospel as savage nations do. Go into all the world. But some are two barbarous, eating one another, and looking hungrily at you; its madness to go and teach them the mysteries of Christianity. Go into all the world. But some parts of the world are the homes of ancient idolatries; their gods are visible, and their worship is fortified by the indulgence of cruelty and lust. It is impossible to win such nations to the pure worship of an invisible Spirit. Go into all the world. But some nations are the worshippers of one God with a comparatively pure form of faith; why disturb them? Go into all the world. But your religion of the West cannot be suited to the customs of the East. That which suits Anglo-Saxons cannot suit Orientals. But our religion had its birthplace in the East. Missionaries from Syria first came to Britain; now we take back the gospel that we received from them. The gospel has been preached throughout the world: it has gone back to Palestine, Egypt, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. The Anglo-Saxon race-the depositories of Christianity-have spread through the world; our commerce is in every country, our ships sail over every sea, our language is spoken in every clime; by the aid of printing, Bibles and books are multiplied in almost every language.
III. To whom? To every creature. Not only to nations, you will observe, as though we could convert a nation at once by gaining over the rulers and their passing laws. No; go and preach the gospel to every creature. Christianity is a personal thing. Believe thou the gospel. It is for every creature. God would not invite to a banquet those for whom there was no room. Yes, for every creature. Christ, who constitutes the gospel, is Divine, and therefore infinite; if not Divine, and merely human, there would be a limitation about His power. To every creature. The most unlikely persons to receive the gospel have often been the first to accept it. Publicans and harlots enter the kingdom of heaven before some of those who seemed to be far advanced on the way; therefore we are to preach, not only to barbarous tribes as such, but to the most degraded specimens of those tribes. What! to this hoary-headed heathen whose heathenism is bound up in his very life? Every creature. What! to this fierce cannibal gloating over his victories? Every creature. What! to this wild tenant of the woods whose intellect seems little above the intellect of the brutes; who seems as if he had no wishes but the most debased of his own debased people. To every creature. What! to this man of cultivation? Every creature. It is for sinners, and I am a sinner. It is for all, and I am one of the all; and so, having received it, I publish it to others. (N. Hall, LL. B.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 15. Go ye into all the world] See Clarke on Mt 28:19.
And preach the Gospel to every creature.] Proclaim the glad tidings – of Christ crucified; and raised from the dead – to all the creation, – to the Gentile worid; for in this sense berioth, is often understood among the rabbins; because HE, through the grace of God, hath tasted death for EVERY man, Heb 2:9. And on the rejection of the Gospel by the Jews, it was sent to the whole Gentile world.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
See Poole on “Mat 28:19-20“, where what we have here is largely explained.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. And he said unto them, Go yeinto all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creatureSeeon Joh 20:19-23 and Lu24:36-49.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he said unto them,…. Not at the same time, and place, as before; not on the first day of the week, on which he rose from the dead, but forty days after, just upon his ascension to heaven; see Mr 16:19; nor at Jerusalem, but in Galilee, where be appointed to meet his disciples, and did, when he gave them the following commission; see Mt 28:16.
go ye into all the world: not only into Judea, and through all the cities of it, where they had been before confined; nor only into the Roman empire, which is sometimes so called, because great part of the world was under that government; but into every known and habitable part of the whole universe, to all the nations of the world under heaven: and it is to be observed, that this command is not enjoined on every apostle separately, as if each of them was to go into all the world, and travel over every part; but that one was to go one way, and another another way; every one had his line, or that part of the world marked out for him, whither he was to steer his course, and where he was to fulfil and finish his ministry: and besides, this commission not only included the Apostles, but reaches to all the ministers of the Gospel in succeeding ages, to the end of the world; and since this, one part of the world, which was not known, is now discovered; and the order includes that, as well as the then known parts of the world, and the Gospel accordingly has been sent into it.
And preach the Gospel to every creature; not to inanimate and irrational creatures, as stocks and stones, the beasts of the field, c. nor to all rational creatures, as angels, good or bad the former need not the preaching of the Gospel, and the latter are denied the blessing; but men, the offspring of fallen Adam, the objects of God’s good will: these are styled “the creatures”, because the chief of God’s creation on earth; and are often in the Jewish writings so called; take an instance or two:
“R. Chuninn ben Dousa r used to say, all in whom, , “the creatures” (i.e. men) have delight, God has delight; and in whomsoever “the creatures” (or men) have no, delight, God has no delight.”
One of the seven qualifications of a member of the sanhedrim is,
, “love of the creatures” s, or love of men: so it is said t, that
“the holy blessed God, sits in the height of the world, and gives a portion of food, , “to every creature”,”
that is, to every man: and particularly the Gentiles, as distinguished from the Jews, are often intended by this phrase: thus
“says u R. Judah, perhaps, , “the creatures”, (i.e. the Gentiles,) knew the love with which the holy blessed God Ioved Israel, and roared like lions to pursue after them.”
It is elsewhere w said,
“all the prayers, , “of the creatures” (the Heathens) are only concerning the earth; Lord, let the earth bring forth! Lord, let the earth be fruitful! All the prayers of the Israelites, are only for the house of the Lord; Lord, let the house of the sanctuary be built, c.”
And in this sense is the phrase used, in Ro 8:22 2Pe 3:4. Now to these, Christ would have the Gospel preached, as well as to the Jews even to all, without any distinction of people, Jews and Gentiles, Barbarians, Scythians, bond and free, male and female, rich and poor, greater or lesser sinners, even to all mankind; than which, nothing was more provoking to the Jews; who would, if they could, have revoked and made null this commission of Christ; see 1Th 2:16. It was the Gospel he would have preached to them, the word of peace and reconciliation, by his atoning sacrifice; the doctrine of free and full pardon by his blood; and of justification by his righteousness; and of complete salvation by him: even every doctrine relating to his person, as God and man; to every office of his, as prophet, priest, and king; to his incarnation, sufferings, and death, his resurrection, ascension, session at the right hand of God, and intercession for his people, and second coming to judgment; with every doctrine relating to the grace of God, of the Father in election, and the covenant of peace, of the Son in redemption, and of the Spirit in regeneration and sanctification: all which he would have published and declared in the most free, plain, and open manner, with all boldness, faithfulness, and constancy. A compendium and summary of which, is given in the next words.
r Pirke Abot, c. 3. sect. 10. s Maimon. Hilch. Sandedfin, c. 2. sect. 7. t T. Bab. Pesachim, fol. 118. 1. Vid. T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 86. 1. u Zohar in Exod. fol. 2, 3. w Bereshit Rabba, sect. 13. fol. 11. 3. Vid. T. Bab. Chagiga, fol. 12. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
To the whole creation ( ). This commission in Mark is probably another report of the missionary Magna Charta in Mt 28:16-20 spoken on the mountain in Galilee. One commission has already been given by Christ (Joh 20:21-23). The third appears in Luke 24:44-49; Acts 1:3-8.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
To every creature [ ] . Rightly, as Rev., to the whole creation.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
JESUS GIVES THE GREAT COMMISSION V. 15-20
1) “And He said unto them,” (kai eipen autois) “And He said directly to them,” the assembled disciples, the eleven,” with others present, referring to “the church,” which He had established, as a witnessing body, Joh 15:16; Joh 15:27.
2) “Go ye into all the world,” (poreuthentes eis ton kosmon hapanta) “You all go (as a church), and keep on going, on and on, continually, into all (all parts), of the world (created universe),” Mat 28:18-20.
3) “And preach the gospel to every creature.” (keruksateuangellion pasete ktisei) “And you all (as a church) proclaim or herald the gospel to all the creation,” to every responsible person who can hear it; Tell the story of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (for our sins) according to the scriptures, to all the world, 1Co 15:1-4; Rom 1:14-16; Joh 20:21; Luk 24:46-48; Act 1:8, as expressed in the song:
“Tell it today, in every nation,
Tell it today, to all creation
That Jesus is Lord of all!”
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(15) And he said unto them.See Notes on Mat. 28:16-20. There is much, however, that is so distinct in St. Marks report as to suggest the thought that it may have referred to a different occasion.
Preach the gospel to every creature.Better, to the whole creation. The universality of the word is, of course, limited by the nature of the case.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. Go ye into all the world These words somewhat resemble the great commission given in Mat 28:16-20, on the mountain in Galilee, but they were now uttered on a different occasion, namely, as they sat at meat. As these words were addressed to all preachers of the word, who are therein successors to the apostles, so they make it the duty of the Church to prosecute the enterprise of converting the world. Nations nominally Christian are to be converted to a real piety. Heathen nations are to be converted to the acceptance of a vital Christianity. The words sound as a trumpet blast pealing through all ages to the army of faith to win the world to the Saviour. Preach The preacher and the preaching are divine institutions. They are established by Christ, and shall last till the world shall end. All other moral means of converting the world to righteousness the press, the sabbath school, the voluntary societies, social prayer meetings, class meetings, and other meetings for Christian counsel are auxiliary to the preacher and the preaching of the word. The Gospel That is the “good news.” (See note on Mat 1:1.) Preach the good news that there is a Saviour who can save us from sin, death, and hell, and endow us with holiness, blessedness, and heaven. Preach the good news, that all who hunger and thirst after righteousness, and desire to turn from sin to piety, may find the way. Every creature That has a soul to be saved.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And he said to them, “You go into all the world and preach the Good News to every creature (or ‘the whole creation’). He who believes and is baptised will be saved, But he who disbelieves will be condemned.” ’
The risen Jesus repeatedly told the disciples that they had a ‘worldwide’ mission (Mat 28:19; Luk 24:47). They would think mainly in terms of the Roman world. This was confirmation of His words in Mar 13:10. At this stage they would still be thinking in terms of winning Jews worldwide and making proselytes to Christian Judaism, and of baptism as it had been practised by John and themselves. It was only as things unfolded that their direct message to the Gentiles would be appreciated.
‘Preach the Good News to every creature.’ This was the Good News of the Kingly Rule of God established through their risen Messiah (Mar 1:1; Mar 1:15). It was to be proclaimed to everyone and included repentance and remission of sins in His name (Mar 1:4; Luk 24:47). Note the continuity with the message of John the Baptiser in Luk 24:47 but given greater significance by connection with Jesus’ name. Again the idea would be expanded as the Holy Spirit made clear the truth of the Gospel in fuller measure.
‘Every creature.’ This means either ‘every person’ or ‘the whole world’. Compare Col 1:23. They were to become new creatures as part of a new creation. (2Co 5:17; Gal 6:15; Rom 6:4).
‘He who believes and is baptised will be saved.’ As men believe unto salvation they are to be baptised as a sign that they are partaking in the blessings of the Holy Spirit’s outpouring, the fulfilment of the prophetic promises in the Old Testament (Isa 32:15-17; Isa 44:3-5; Joe 2:28-29). Baptism is assumed for every believer. But it is not the lack of baptism that condemns but the lack of belief. This baptism is to be ‘in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’ (Mat 28:19). The result of belief and baptism is to be discipleship and obedience (Mat 28:19-20).
The command to baptise, following belief, would remind the Apostles of how they had baptised in their early days with Jesus. It was the promise that the blessings promised by John the Baptiser would now become apparent on those who believed. The Holy Spirit would be poured out, the wheat would be gathered into the barn, fruitfulness would abound. But note that the belief comes first. Paul would stress that his concern was to proclaim the cross which was the power of God unto salvation to all who, believed, and was content to leave the baptising to others (1 Corinthian Mar 1:14-18). To him baptism was secondary to the saving experience. It was the preaching of the word of power that saved.
As the word spread among the Gentiles baptism would become even more significant for it would be seen by outsiders, and by the man himself, as cutting a man off from his old life and environment and religion and proclaiming to all that he was now Jesus’ disciple, serving the living God, dead to his old life and living in newness of life (Rom 6:4).
The mention of baptism in this way may suggest that the baptising ministry had been continued by the disciples throughout the ministry of Jesus (Joh 3:22; Joh 4:1-2) although there is no hint of it in any of the Gospels. In support of this possibility is the fact that there is never a suggestion that pre-resurrection disciples be baptised.
‘He who believes not will be condemned.’ There is an echo here of the ideas in Joh 3:18. They will be condemned because they refuse to come to the light. The assumption is that the true light has shone on them but they have rejected it.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mar 16:15. Go ye into all the world, &c. “And having, after this, during his abode on earth, frequently shewn himself to his apostles, for the greater confirmation of their faith, and further instruction about the glorious things of his kingdom, (see Act 1:3.) he, a little before his ascension, gave them their final and standing commission, saying, Go ye forth in my name unto all the nations of the earth, and preach my gospel, as ye have opportunity, to all mankind, whether Jew or Gentile, without exception.” This was the plain import of Christ’s commission; though the apostles themselves were so dull of apprehension, through their prejudices against the Gentiles, that they did not understand it in that sense for some years afterwards; and so confined their ministrations to the Jews, till St. Peter was more fully instructed by a vision, and sent to preach the gospel to Cornelius and his family, Acts 10.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mar 16:15 . Continuation of the same act of speaking.
] to the whole creation , i.e. to all creatures , by which expression, however, in this place, as in Col 1:23 , all men are designated, as those who are created , as the Rabbinic is also used (see Lightfoot, p. 673, and Wetstein in loc) Not merely the Gentiles (who are called by the Rabbins contemptuously , see Lightfoot, l.c.) are meant, as Lightfoot, Hammond, Knatchbull, and others would have it. This would be in accordance neither with Mar 16:16 f., where the discourse is of all believers without distinction, nor with , Mar 16:20 , wherein is included the entire missionary activity, not merely the preaching to the Gentiles. Comp. on Mat 28:19 . Nor yet is there a pointing in at the glorification of the whole of nature (Lange, comp. Bengel) by means of the gospel (comp. Rom 8 ), which is wholly foreign to the conception, as plainly appears from what follows ( ). As in Col. l.c., so here also the designation of the universal scope of the apostolic destination by has in it something of solemnity.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1461
ON THE GOSPEL MESSAGE
Mar 16:15-16. 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.
IT is to be lamented that an unhappy prejudice subsists in the Christian world against the peculiar and most essential doctrines of our holy religion; and that, while ministers defend with zeal and ability the outworks of Christianity, they are at little pains to lead their hearers within the veil, and to unfold to them those blessed truths whereon their salvation depends. Under the idea that moral discourses are more accommodated to the comprehensions of men, and more influential on their practice, they wave all mention of the sublime mysteries of the Gospel, and inculcate little more than a system of heathen ethics [Note: See this exposed with great perspicuity and strength of argument in Bishop Horsleys First Charge.]. They would be ashamed, and almost afraid to make such a passage as this the ground-work of their discourse, lest they should be thought to be contending for some uncertain, unimportant tenets, instead of promoting the interests of piety and virtue. But can any one read such a solemn declaration as that in the text, and account it unworthy of his notice? Can any one consider the circumstances under which it was uttered, or the authoritative manner in which the Apostles were commanded to publish it to the world, and yet think himself at liberty to disregard it? Shall the very recital of it beget suspicion, as though nothing were desired but to establish the Shibboleth of a party? Let us put away such unbecoming jealousies, and enter in a fair and candid manner into the investigation of the words before us: let us consider that they were among the last words of our blessed Lord while he sojourned upon earth; that they contain his final commission to his Apostles, and, in them, to all succeeding pastors of his Church; that they are distinguished by our Lord himself by that honourable appellation, The Gospel, or glad tidings; and that they were delivered by him not only as the rule of our faith, but as the rule of his procedure in the day of judgment: let us, I say, consider the words in this view, and, with hearts duly impressed and open to conviction, attend to what shall be spoken, while we endeavour to explain the importvindicate the reasonablenessand display the excellencyof this divine message: and the Lord grant, that, while we are attending to these things, the word may come, not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.
I.
In explaining the import of our text, we shall have little more to do than to ascertain the meaning of the different terms; for the sense of them being once fixed, the import of the whole will be clear and obvious
Salvation can mean nothing less than the everlasting happiness of the soul. To limit the term to any temporal deliverance would be to destroy utterly the truth as well as the importance of our Lords declaration: for though it is true, that they, who believed his prophecies relative to the destruction of Jerusalem, escaped to Pella, and were rescued from the misery in which the Jewish nation was involved, yet the followers of our Lord in that and every age have been subjected to incessant persecutions and cruel deaths; nor was that deliverance either of so great or so general concern, that the Apostles needed to go forth into all the world, or to preach it to every creature. Our Lord came to seek and to save that which was lost; he came to open a way for the recovery of our fallen race, and to restore men to the happiness which they had forfeited by their iniquities: this is the salvation spoken of in the text, and justly termed, a salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
This salvation is to be obtained by faith; He that believeth shall be saved. By the term, believing we are not to understand a mere assent given to any particular doctrine; for there is not any particular doctrine to which the most abandoned sinner, or even the devils themselves, may not assent: in this sense of the word, St. James says, the devils believe and tremble. The faith intended in the text is far more than an acknowledgment of the truth of the Gospel; it is an approbation of it as excellent, and an acceptance of it as suitable. Assent is an act of the understanding only: but true faith is a consent of the will also, with the full concurrence of our warmest affections: it is called in one place a believing with the heart; and in another, a believing with all the heart.In few words, faith is a new and living principle, whereby we are enabled to rely upon the Lord Jesus Christ for all the ends and purposes for which he came into the world; a principle, which, at the same time that it takes us off from all self-dependence, leads us to purify our hearts from the love and practice of all sin. To such faith as this our Lord frequently annexes a promise of eternal salvation: in his discourse with Nicodemus he says, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And in the close of that chapter it is added, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; but he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Not that there is any thing meritorious in this grace more than in any other; for, as a grace, it is inferior to love; but salvation is annexed to this rather than to any other, because this alone unites us to the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we are accepted, and by whose merits we are saved.
To the term Salvation is opposed another of a most awful import, namely Damnation: as the former cannot be limited to any temporal deliverance, so neither can this be limited to any temporal judgment: for, not to mention the express and repeated declarations that the punishment of the wicked will be as a worm that dieth not, and a fire that is not quenched, our Lord, in the very words before us, contrasts the consequences of unbelief with the consequences of faith; thereby manifesting, that they were to be considered by us as of equal magnitude and duration: and, in his account of the final sentence which he will pass upon the righteous and the wicked in the day of judgment, he describes the happiness of the one and the misery of the other by the very same epithet, in order to cut off all occasion of doubt respecting the continuance of either: These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. We are constrained, therefore to acknowledge, that the threatening in the text includes nothing less than the everlasting misery of the soul, under the wrath and indignation of God.
This, tremendous as it is, will be the fruit of unbelief; He that believeth not shall be damned. We must not suppose that the unbelief here spoken of characterizes only professed infidels, who openly avow their contempt of Christianity; for then it would by no means afford a sufficient line of distinction between those that shall be saved, and there that shall perish; seeing that there are many who profess to reverence the Christian revelation, while they live in a constant violation of every duty it enjoins. If the receiving of Christ, as he is offered in the Gospel, be the faith that saves, then the not receiving of Christ in that manner must be the unbelief that condemns. This observation is of great importance: for the generality seem to have no idea that they can be unbelievers, unless they have formally renounced the Christian faith: their consciences are quite clear on this subject: the guilt of unbelief never caused them one moments uneasiness. But can any thing be more plain, than that the same faith, which is necessary to bring us to salvation, must be also necessary to keep us from condemnation? Indeed it is so self-evident a truth, that the very mention of it appears almost absurd; and yet it will be well if we admit its full force in the point before us: for, however zealous many are to comprehend holy actions and affections in their definitions of saving faith, they are backward enough to acknowledge that a want of those qualities must evidence them to be in a state of unbelief: yet, till this truth be felt and acknowledged, there is little hope that the Gospel will ever profit them at all.
There is a qualifying clause in the text which we must not leave unnoticed; and the rather, because it is added in the former, but omitted in the latter part; He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. Our Lord had appointed baptism as that rite whereby his Disciples should be introduced into the Christian covenant, as the Jews had been by circumcision into the Mosaic covenant: and mens submission to this rite served as a test of their sincerity, and a public badge of their profession. If any were inwardly convinced that the religion of Christ was indeed of divine authority, and were not prevented by insurmountable obstacles from conforming to this rite, they must cheerfully enlist themselves under his banners, and honour him in his appointed way; they must follow the Lord fully, if they would be partakers of his benefits. But, on the other hand, if they should submit to this ordinance, and yet be destitute of true faith, their baptism should not save them; they should perish for their unbelief: baptized or unbaptized, they should surely perish.
The parts of the text being thus explained, there remains no difficulty in the meaning of the whole as it stands connected together. No words can be found that can more forcibly express the solemn truth, which our Lord intended to convey: the import of his declaration is so obvious, that we shall not attempt to elucidate it any farther, but will proceed,
II.
To vindicate its reasonableness
That men should be saved for their good works, or condemned for their gross iniquities, would be thought reasonable enough; but that they should be saved by faith, or condemned for unbelief, seems to many to be utterly unreasonable and absurd. But, to a candid inquirer, the equity and reasonableness of both these points may be easily and plainly evinced.
If faith were, as some imagine it to be, a mere assent to certain propositions, it must be confessed, that, to expect salvation by it were preposterous in the extreme. But it has already been shewn that this is not saving faith. The man who truly believes, invariably comes to Christ in this way; he confesses with humility and contrition his past offenceshe acknowledges, from his inmost soul, that he deserves the everlasting displeasure of Godhe renounces every hope that might arise from his comparative goodness, his penitential sorrows, his future purposes, his actual amendmenthe embraces Christ as a suitable and all-sufficient Saviourand relies simply and entirely upon the promises which God has made to us in the Son of his love. This, I say, is the believers experience at the first moment he truly believes in Christ. To this we might add, that, from that moment, he lives in a state of communion with his Saviour, and exerts himself to the utmost to adorn his profession by a holy life and conversation: but we intentionally omit all the fruits of faith which he afterwards produces, lest any one should be led to confound faith with its fruits, or to ascribe that to faith and works conjointly, which properly belongs to faith alone. Consider then a person coming in this penitent manner to Christ, and trusting in the promises of his God; is it unreasonable that such a person should be saved? Who in all the world should be saved so soon as he, who implores deliverance from his lost estate? Who should reap the benefits of Christs death, but he, who makes that his only plea and dependence? Who may so justly hope to experience Gods fidelity, as he who rests upon his promises? Who, in short, should enjoy all the blessings of redemption, but he who seeks redemption in Gods appointed way? Surely, if it be reasonable that Christ should see of the travail of his soul, and that God should fulfil his own word, then is it most reasonable that he who believes in Christ should be saved.
With respect to the condemnation of unbelievers, we readily acknowledge that that also would be unreasonable, on a supposition that unbelief were nothing more than a dissent from certain propositions, through a want of sufficient evidence to establish their divine authority. But unbelief is a sin of the deepest dye; and the person who is under its dominion is in a state as offensive to God as can well be conceived. For, in the first place, he rejects that which has been established by every kind of evidence which a revelation from heaven can admit of: and, in rejecting it, he shews that he is lifted up with pride and presumption: for he not only takes upon him to sit in judgment upon God, but denies his own state to be so dangerous and depraved as God has represented it. If he acknowledges himself to be a sinner, he still feels neither his guilt nor his helplessness as he ought, but goes about to establish a righteousness of his own, instead of submitting to the righteousness of God. That wonderful method which the infinite wisdom of God has contrived for the restoration of our fallen race, he accounts foolishness; and substitutes what he esteems a safer and better method of his own. The most stupendous display of divine love and mercy that ever was or can be exhibited, he disregards: and thus, both tramples under foot the Son of God, and does despite unto the Spirit of grace: yea, to use the language of an inspired Apostle, he makes the only true God a liar; for whereas God has said, that there is no other name whereby we can be saved, but the name of Jesus, nor any other foundation than that which he himself has laid, the unbeliever directly contradicts him, and unequivocally declares his expectation, that there is and shall be some other way of acceptance with him. Now is it unreasonable that such a person should be punished? that such a despiser of God should be left without any part in the believers portion? Let us only apply the case to ourselves. If a child should pour contempt upon the wisest counsels of his parents, and question the truth of their most solemn protestations, should we not think him worthy of his parents displeasure? would not we ourselves, in such a case, manifest our disapprobation of his conduct? Who then are we, that we should insult GOD thus, and do it with impunity? Who are we, I say, that, when we are at liberty to withhold a blessing from an ungrateful fellow-creature, or to inflict a punishment on him adequate to his offence, we should not be in like manner amenable to God? If any say, We acknowledge the sinfulness of unbelief, but think the punishment of it too severe; I answer, God himself is the best judge of the malignity of sin; and he has denounced death, eternal death, as the wages due to every sin: much more therefore may it be inflicted for unbelief; since there is no sin so complicated, nor any that so effectually precludes even a possibility of salvation: we may purge away any other sin by a believing application to the blood of Christ; but by unbelief we reject the only remedy provided for us.
Hoping that the reasonableness of our Saviours declaration has been satisfactorily proved, we come,
III.
To display its excellency
While the Gospel of Christ is misrepresented and opposed by man, the angels, who are incomparably less interested in its provisions, are ever contemplating it with admiration and joy. And, if it were better understood amongst us, it could not but meet with a more favourable reception; for it has innumerable excellencies, which render it worthy of universal acceptation. Let us examine a few of its leading features. In the first place, it clearly defines the way of salvation. Take any other way of salvation that ever was devised, by repentance for instance, or by sincere obedience; what inexplicable difficulties occur to our view! for, who can tell what degree of repentance will satisfy God for our breaches of his law, and be a sufficient price for heaven? Who can mark out the line which shall be drawn between those that shall be saved and those that shall perish? Who can tell what sincere obedience means? It cannot mean the doing what we will, for that would put a murderer on the same footing with an Apostle: and if it mean the doing what we can, where is the man that can be saved by it? Where is the man who has not violated it in ten thousand instances, or who does not violate it every day of his life? Who can truly say that for any one day he has mortified every sinful habit as much as he could, exercised every holy affection as much as he could, and practised every species of duty as much as he could? And if we cannot but acknowledge that we might have done more, who shall say what degree of insincerity may be indulged without violating the law of sincere obedience? On all such plans as these we are utterly at a loss; we are at sea without a compass. But take the doctrine laid down in the text, and the way of salvation is so plain, that he who runs may read it. Let any man ask himself this question, Do I believe in Christ? Let him pursue the inquiry somewhat farther, Do I feel myself a guilty, helpless, condemned sinner? Do I renounce all dependence on my own wisdom, strength, and righteousness? Do I see that there is in Christ a fulness suited to my necessities? And do I daily, with humility and earnestness, beg of God that Christ may be made unto me wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption? These questions are easy enough to be resolved; and by the answer which conscience gives to them, we may know assuredly whether we be in the way to heaven or to hell. And who does not see how great an excellency this is in the Gospel-salvation? Who does not see how strongly this circumstance recommends the doctrine in our text?
Another excellency in the Gospel is, that it is equally suited to all persons in all conditions. Had any self-righteous methods of acceptance been proposed to the dying thief, what consolation could he have found? How little could he do in his few remaining hours! However he might have admired the goodness of God to others, he must have utterly despaired of mercy himself. But through faith in Christ he was enabled to depart in peace and joy As to the murderers of our Lord, how long must it have been before they could have entertained any comfortable hope of acceptance! But the Gospel affords a prospect of salvation to the very chief of sinners, and that, even at the eleventh hour. Nor is there any situation whatever, in which the Gospel is not calculated to comfort and support the soul. Under first convictions of sin, what so delightful as to hear of a Saviour? Under subsequent trials and temptations, how would our difficulties be increased, if we did not know that God had laid help upon One that was mighty! The people of God, notwithstanding the hope which they have in Christ, feel great and heavy discouragements on account of the power of indwelling corruption: they seem oftentimes to be rolling a stone up the hill, which rushes impetuously down again, and necessitates them to repeat their ineffectual labours. And what would they do if their dependence were not placed on the obedience and sufferings of the Son of God? Surely they would lie down in despair, and say like those of old, There is no hope; I have loved strangers, and after them will I go. Under the various calamities of life, also, believers find consolation in the thought that the salvation of their souls is secured by Christ. Hence they are enabled to bear their trials with firmness: they know how both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. And shall not this recommend the Gospel? that there is no situation, no circumstance whatever wherein it is not suited to us? that while every other method of salvation increases our anxiety, and, in many instances, drives us utterly to despair, the Gospel always mitigates our sorrows, and often turns them into joy and triumph?
A farther excellency of the Gospel is, that it refers all the glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. Every other plan of salvation leaves room for man to boast: but, on the plan of the Gospel, the most moral person upon earth must subscribe to the declaration of the Apostle, By grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. None, who have obtained an interest in Christ, will take the glory to themselves: the voice of all without exception is, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be the praise. There is not any thing that distinguishes true believers more than this, that they desire to glorify Christ as the one source of all their blessings. In this their hearts are in perfect unison with the glorified saints, who sing continually, To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, to Him be glory and dominion, for ever and ever. And is not this another excellency of the Gospel? Is it at all desirable that while some in heaven are ascribing salvation to God and to the Lamb, others should ascribe salvation to God and to themselves? Surely the felicity of heaven is much increased by the obligation which they feel to Jesus, and the consideration that every particle of that bliss was purchased for them by the blood of God himself; nor is there so much as one amongst all the hosts of heaven who would consent for an instant to rob the Saviour of his glory.
LastlyThe last excellency which I shall mention as belonging to the Gospel, is, that it most of all secures the practice of good works. Here is the chief ground of jealousy with the world: and if the Gospel were indeed liable to the imputations cast on it, if it gave licence to men to continue in sin, we should not hesitate to discard it as a fiction, seeing that it could never be the production of a holy God. But, as the Apostle says, The grace of God which bringeth salvation teaches us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live righteously, soberly, and godly in this present world. If we appeal to antiquity, who was ever so strenuous as St. Paul in asserting the doctrine of justification by faith alone? and yet, who was ever so abundant in labours of every kind? or who ever inculcated with greater energy and minuteness the necessity of good works? If we come to modern times, we must observe that they, who now preach justification by faith, are with the very same breath accused of opening heaven to all, however they may act, and yet of shutting the door against all by their unnecessary strictness: and they who receive the Gospel are condemned as licentious, while they are at the same time blamed as too rigid and precise: nor is this by any means a slight proof of the efficacy of the Gospel on the hearts and lives of its professors; for if their sentiments expose them to the former censure, it is their holy conduct that subjects them to the latter. We grant and acknowledge it with sorrow, that there are some who name the name of Christ without departing from iniquity: but must all therefore be represented as of the same stamp, and the Gospel itself be considered as unfavourable to morality? Is it just, that, while ten thousand glaring sins pass unnoticed in an unbeliever, the misconduct of a few, or perhaps one single fault in a person professing godliness should excite a clamour against all the religious world as hypocrites? But, thanks be to God! we can appeal to experience, that faith does work by love, and overcome the world,and purify the heart: we are therefore emboldened primarily and principally to recommend the Gospel from this consideration, that while the zealous advocates for self-righteousness are miserably defective in all spiritual duties, the Gospel of Christ invariably stimulates us to a holy, spiritual, and unreserved obedience.
Many more excellencies of the Gospel might be mentioned: but if those that have been stated will not endear it to us, it is in vain to hope that any thing which could be added would procure it a favourable reception.
And now, as there are many in this Assembly [Note: Preached before the University.] who are already engaged in the service of the sanctuary, and many others who are destined in due time to undertake the sacred office of the ministry, and as the words of my text are in a more especial manner applicable to persons so circumstanced, suffer me, with humility, yet with freedom and faithfulness, to address myself in a more especial manner to them; and let me entreat you to bear with me if I use great boldness of speech.
I would beseech you then, my Brethren, to consider, that as the eternal welfare of our fellow-creatures is suspended on their reception or rejection of the Gospel, so their acquaintance with the Gospel must depend, in a great measure, on those who are authorized to teach it: for faith cometh by hearing; and how shall they hear without a preacher? Be not offended then if I ask, whether you yourselves have received the truth in the love of it? If you have not, how can you properly commend it to others? How can it be expected that you should contend earnestly for that faith which you yourselves have never embraced; or that you should labour with becoming zeal to convert your hearers, when you yourselves are unconverted? O let it be a matter of deep and serious inquiry amongst us, whether we have felt the force and influence of the Gospel? Have we ever been convinced of unbelief? Have we seen the equity and reasonableness of the judgments denounced against us whilst in that state? Have we, under a deep conviction of our guilt and helplessness, fled to Christ for refuge? Have we discovered the transcendent excellency of this salvation; and do we feel in our inmost souls its perfect suitableness to our own necessities, and its tendency to promote the interests of holiness? Can we say with the Apostle, that, what our eyes have seen, our ears have heard, and our hands have handled of the word of life, that, and that only, we declare unto our people? In short, while we profess that the ministry of reconciliation has been committed unto us, do we experience this reconciliation ourselves? The salvation of our own souls, no less than that of our fellow-sinners, depends on this: indeed we are more interested in the Gospel than any; for if we continue ignorant of it, we perish under the aggravated guilt of rejecting it ourselves, and of betraying the souls of others into irretrievable ruin. We, of all people under heaven, are most bound to divest ourselves of prejudice, and to labour with our whole hearts, both to enjoy the blessings of the Gospel, and to shew ourselves patterns of its sanctifying influence. Let us then, in compliance with the Divine command, take heed to ourselves, and to our doctrine, that, in so doing, we may both save ourselves and them that hear us.
But let others also be aware, that though they may have no responsibility attaching to them as ministers, they have as Christians. I must beg leave therefore to say unto all, that as baptism is not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God, so the faith which they profess cannot save them, unless it be accompanied with a renovation of heart and life. Do not then be hasty to conclude that you are true believers: examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith; prove your ownselves. Be assured, it is no easy matter to believe: it is by no means pleasing to flesh and blood: there is not any thing to which we are naturally more averse: what our Lord said to the Jews of old may be addressed with equal propriety to the greater part of nominal Christians, Ye will not come unto me, that ye may have life. But let it be remembered, that, however humiliating it may appear to our proud nature to renounce all self-righteousness and self-dependence, and to look for acceptance through the merits of Christ alone, it must be done: it will profit us little to have received the outward seal of his covenant, unless we possess also the faith of Gods elect. Our lofty looks must be humbled, our haughtiness must be brought down, and the Lord alone must be exalted: we must bow before the sceptre of his grace, or we shall be broken in pieces with a rod of iron. If we truly and cordially receive Him, we shall have the privilege of becoming the sons of God; and if sons, then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. But what shall our end be, if we obey not the Gospel? What prospect have we, but to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power? Behold then, life and death are this day set before you. Bearing, as we do, a commission from the Lord Jesus to preach his Gospel, we are debtors both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. In his sacred name, therefore, we deliver our message; we are constrained to deliver it with all faithfulness, whether ye will hear, or whether ye will forbear. He, who with a penitent and contrite heart believeth in the Son of God, and, by virtue of that faith, is enabled to confess him before men, and to honour him by a holy life, he shall receive the remission of his sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in Christ. But he, who believeth not on the Son of God, however moral he may have been in his external conduct, and whatever pleas he may urge in extenuation of his guilt, he, I say, shall not see life, but the wrath of God shall abide upon him: he hath practically said, I will not have this man to reign over me; and the despised Saviour will, ere long, issue this vindictive sentenceBring him hither, and slay him before me. The decree is gone forth, nor shall all the powers of heaven or hell reverse it, He who believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned.
MCCCCLXII
MCCCCLXIII
MCCCCLXIV
MCCCCLXV
See the end of Claudes Essay, where there are four different Skeletons on this same text, to illustrate the four different modes of discussion, by Explicationby Observationsby Propositionsand by perpetual Application. These, it is hoped, will throw considerable light upon the Composition of a Sermon, as an art or Science, and facilitate the attainment of it.
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
(15) And he said unto them; Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. (16) He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. (17) And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; (18) 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.
It should seem, from the relation of this final commission the LORD gave to his disciples, that it was not all delivered at this morning and evening of the day of his resurrection, but in the different meetings which JESUS graciously made with them during the forty days he went in and out before them, to the day he returned to glory. And the commission itself of going into the whole of the then known world, and preaching the Gospel to every creature, carried with it the full glorious tidings of salvation in his blood, and righteousness both to Jew and Gentile. See Isa 49:1-6 . And while the LORD thus taught them that the door of salvation was to be opened to the people of GOD, which were scattered abroad, the Gospel itself implied that CHRIST himself in his person, work, grace, blood-shedding, and righteousness, became JEHOVAH’s one and only ordinance of salvation, to everyone which believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. CHRIST in himself is comprehensive of the whole Gospel. In Matthew’s relation of this, it is added, they were to baptize the people, in the joint name of the FATHER, SON, and HOLY GHOST, intimating thereby, that to the joint love, and grace, and mercy, of the HOLY THREE in ONE, the whole blessings of redemption flow. See 1Pe 1:2 , compared with Num 6:22 , to the end. 2Co 13:14 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
A Divine Command
Mar 16:15
So said Jesus Christ, according to the report given in the Gospel according to Mark. “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Can we make these words more universal? Can we add another province to the sphere? Let us see: “Go ye into all the world.” Can you add one island to that geography a little island? Can you? “And preach the gospel to every creature.” Is there one left out a little one, a black one? Say what omissions mark this census. Not one. Is this like Jesus? Was he always so big in thought, in love, in care? Was he never little, mean, economic, sparse, critical? Did he always keep house for the whole universe? What is the characteristic of Christ along this line of thinking? Is it not universality, inclusiveness, godliness? How many men did God make, and who made the rest? Where is there a man that shaped himself, called himself into existence, maintains an independent individuality and relation to things, comes and goes as he pleases? Where is that man? As at the first God’s hand was upon all, so through and through all the story God’s love is upon all, and Christ’s dear Cross overshadows all, and Christ’s infinite heart welcomes all. If there be anything contrary to this, then we are mocked; false words have been spoken to us, promises have been spoken to the ear and broken to the heart. Is this the God we can worship? Is he a trifler? Is he a verbal necromancer, saying one thing and meaning another, indulging in the double entendre ; ambiguous, uncertain? or is he positive, definite, clear, plain, meaning just what we expect him to mean when we are told that he is Love?
“Preach the gospel to every creature.” Then every creature needs it? What is Man? I have never seen him; you have never seen him. You have seen a man, you have not seen Man. Only God can see Man. Until we get thorough hold of that simple thought we shall make no progress in our Christian studies. We cannot know human nature, we cannot know Man, we have never seen Humanity. Humanity is the sum-total of innumerable details; it is the total form of infinite variations and combinations. We have seen a man and many men, but Man is a singular-plural, a contradiction in grammar, a glorious unity in thought. You have never seen vegetation. What is vegetation? You have seen your own little garden and the field adjoining, and you may have gone even further, and you may know a little about English vegetation; some may go still further, and know a little about American vegetation. These are nothing. Who has seen all the vine-lands, corn-lands, spice-lands, all the lands watched by the zodiacs, the angels, the stars? We are very curious about this. We have near London built a large glass house at great public expense, and we watch it scientifically, and write reports about it, and treasure it as a national blessing. We call the place Kew. Let us enter this great glass house. What are these wondrous leaves, plants, trees? They are all named classically, and labelled and registered and cared for; but in the tropics they are all weeds. They grow out of doors; there are far too many of them; they are a nuisance. What do you know about Man? You have built him a glass house in some cases, and said, This is Man. Nothing of the kind: this is a man; but he who is an aristocrat here is a plebeian over yonder. Ah, that over yonder, that new place, that unknown territory, that unsuspected province! At Kew we are treasuring all kinds of weeds: we know nothing about sum-totals, we have no wisdom; we have little facts and small entries and minute memoranda about parishes, provinces, districts, and what we call empires. Only God can see the globe at one glance. We must therefore go to revelation if we would know what Man is.
Hear this and blush You have to be revealed to yourself. Until you know that you cannot make much out of Christ Jesus. He will not only be a mystery to you, but a mystery of darkness; not only will he be a mystery, he will be a perplexity. I have to be told what I am. I think I know myself, yet myself I have never seen. I do not know which is myself. My name is Legion, for there are many of us, and all within is riot, tumult, shouting, noise, war, bitterness, strife, prayer, blasphemy, seeing of angels and devils. What is this? Who is it? Father-Maker, come and tell me all about myself; I do not know what I am: reveal me to myself. What impudence it is therefore, what sheer impertinence and perversion of cleverness for any man to arise and pretend to tell us what Man is! Human nature is matter of revelation. If there is a book which reveals God, that book will reveal Man. As Christians we accept the Bible in this regard. We have come to look upon it as a divine revelation, below the letter, above the letter, glorifying the letter, and otherwise making the letter an inconvenient convenience, but still independent of it, as we shall come to know when our education is further advanced. The Bible tells us a poor story about Man, a most incredible story to man, because man does not want to believe it. It is very difficult to satisfy any man with his own biography. If you were to write your dearest friend’s biography, he would wish, without saying so, that you had been a little more emphatic here, and a little more complimentary there, and without indulging at all in flattery you might have brought out three or four other points more vividly, so as to have thrown a softer glory upon his beautiful personality. This he would not say for the world. Man has great power of self-concealment, and still greater power of social concealment It is therefore extremely difficult to satisfy any man with his biography. It is well, therefore, that he should be dead before his biography is written; the severest of all critics would be himself. So when man comes to read the Bible story of himself, he says, This cannot be true; this is evidently fanatical, suppositional, allegorical; this is a Jew’s account, this is a perverted statement. Man, why, I know what man is, quoth the critic. So impudent can man be, so bare-faced and shameless. Until we know every creature that ever lived, and every creature under every climate and under every civic, geographical, and celestial condition, we do not know Man, and we must accept a statement of man from a revelation.
We as Christians have accepted the Bible as God’s revelation of himself and of humanity, and, accepting the Bible so, man stands before his Maker lost lost. How dare you take the responsibility of denying this? Who are you? and what will you do for us if you are wrong? If we believe all your nonsense what will you do for us in the crisis-hour? Where will you be? What will be your address then? How many of us may call upon you? If you do not make a revelation you suggest one; if you do not issue a new revelation of the universe you take upon you a still greater responsibility in contradicting one which has been believed by the piety, the benevolence, the purity, and the heroism of ages. What is the Bible account of man? The heart is deceitful above all things: God made man upright, but he hath sought out many inventions. There is none righteous, no, not one. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. This is the Biblical account of humanity, and the Bible is a large book; it takes large views, suggests infinite conceptions, grapples with the mysteries and problems of the universe, it lets nothing alone; it is a heroic book. It is not content with walking round little questions, and making little remarks upon them; it deals with God, man, sin, sacrifice, atonement, reconciliation, spiritual ministry, conquered death, and entered heaven. This book reveals man as lost. Hear this sweet voice, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost,” not some of it, not a little of it, not much of it, not most of it, but “that which was lost.” If these words do not mean what they say, then we are let me repeat, solemnly and reverently mocked by an abuse of language. What is it that is to be preached to every creature? A new theory, a very intricate and most ingenious hypothesis about nothing? No. What then is “the gospel”? What does “gospel” mean? Good news, glad tidings, blessed intelligence, the most astounding and musical revelation of love ever addressed to the ear or the heart, musical music; and what is it in words? No words can express it all, as no instrument can exhaust a musician’s soul. But some of the words are these, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him might be saved. God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. While we were yet sinners Christ died for us: he died the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God: he bare our sins in his own body on the tree: he shed his blood for the remission of sin: and he cries, Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Why, this is what we wanted; somebody has dreamed or invented the very thing man most needs. If this is not a dream, an invention, it is what it professes to be, a revelation of the infinite Heart, a declaration of the ineffable, inexhaustible Love.
How do we stand in relation to it, then? We have either believed it, or we have not believed it. We cannot take up a neutral position, and say we have nothing to do with it. That is impossible. No man can so treat the sunlight. If a man shall be charged with doing something that is contrary to the laws of life, society will not allow him to say, There may be a sun, but I really maintain a totally neutral position in relation to it; I do not regard it, I do not look to it at all. Society would call him fool, and put him down; and if he had done anything wrong society would lock him up and punish him. Society will not allow a man to be so indifferent to the light as to commit a crime when he might have left it undone. You cannot maintain a neutral or negative position in relation to the Cross. Christ, as a matter of history, has died, has sent forth his ministers, has declared his gospel, has opened his heart-door, has breathed upon every one the welcomes of his love; so you cannot say you will take no heed of it, but will receive destiny as it comes. You do not act so in other matters: why do you lay down and abandon your common sense when you come to face the deepest and most solemn questions of life? I believe every man may be saved. I have not a gospel given to me which reads, Give every creature a hearty welcome; but I will take care that there is only room for a few. Go into all the world, and tell everybody he may come; but when he is half a mile oft I will take care that he falls into a pit and cannot come. My gospel does not preach so; my gospel is a gospel of love, entreaty, of universality. It says to the very worst man, You may come. It says to the thief upon the cross, already half in hell, There is still time for saving prayer. “Fly abroad, thou mighty gospel!” This is what we need. We may not feel our need of it at some particular moment, but there are other moments in our life when we must have it all, and when we say to our friends, “Tell me the old, old story of Jesus and his love!” Then we become little children again, brokenhearted men. And God never loves us so much as when we are of a broken and a contrite spirit.
Note
The following list of references to the Old Testament is nearly or quite complete:
Mark Mar 1:2 Mal 3:1 Mark Mar 12:10 Psa 118:22 Mar 1:3 Isa 40:3 . Mar 12:19 Deu 25:5 Mar 1:44 Lev 14:2 . Mar 12:26 Exo 3:6 Mar 2:25 1Sa 21:6 Mar 12:29 Deu 6:4 Mar 4:12 Isa 5:10 Mar 12:31 Lev 19:18 Mar 7:6 Isa 29:13 Mar 12:36 Psa 110:1 Mar 7:10 Exo 20:12 ; Exo 21:17 Mar 13:14 Dan 9:27 Mar 9:44 Isa 66:24 Mar 13:24 Isa 13:10 Mar 10:4 Deu 24:1 Mar 14:27 Zec 13:7 Mar 10:7 Gen 2:24 Mar 14:62 Dan 7:13 Mar 10:19 Exo 20:12-17 Mar 15:28 (?) Isa 53:12 Mar 11:17 Isa 56:7 ; Jer 7:2 Mar 15:34 Psa 22:1 “Though this Gospel has little historical matter which is not shared with some other, it would be a great error to suppose that the voice of Mark could have been silenced without injury to the divine harmony. The minute painting of the scenes in which the Lord took part, the fresh and lively mode of the narration, the very absence of the precious discourses of Jesus, which, interposed between his deeds, would have delayed the action, all give to this Gospel a character of its own. It is the history of the war of Jesus against sin and evil in the world during the time that he dwelt as a Man among men. Its motto might well be, as Lange observes, those words of Peter: ‘How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power; who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him’ ( Act 10:38 ). It developes a series of acts of this conflict, broken by times of rest and refreshing, in the wilderness or on the mountain. It records the exploits of the Son of God in the war against Satan, and the retirement in which after each he returned to commune with his Father, and bring back fresh strength for new encounters.” Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XXXII
CHRIST’S APPEARANCES AND COMMISSIONS (CONTINUED)
Harmony, pages 228-231 and Mat 28:16-20
The next commission is found on page 228 of the Harmony, Matthew’s account, Mat 28:16-20 : “But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth, go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” By the side of it is Mark’s account, also a statement by Paul about five hundred being present. This is what is called the Great Commission. The points of it are: (1) Before he was put to death he appointed this place, a mountain in Galilee, for the assembling of his disciples; and Paul says five hundred brethren were there, and we have already seen that the women were there also. In his appearances to the women he told them to be present, so we must put the number at anywhere between five and six hundred. The gathering is a specially appointed one. He appointed the women after his resurrection to remind them of it. It was to be the gathering of the general body of his disciples apostles, other men and women. The supposable reasons for assembling them at this particular place are: (a) Most of his disciples were Galileans, and (b) by having this big gathering in Galilee, it would avoid creating a disturbance, for if a meeting had been held in Jerusalem, not so many could have attended, and there they would be liable to interruption by the excited people. (2) The next point is that this was the most eventful, far-reaching, important gathering of God’s people between his death and his ascension. (3) Let us analyze the Commission itself. Dr. Landrum once preached a sermon on the Commission, calling attention to the “alls”: (a) “all” authority; (b) go to “all” the nations; (c) observe “all things”; (d) “I am with you all the days,” as it is expressed in the margin.
The reference to the authority which he received is to show them that in telling them to do something, and so great a something, and so important a something, he had the authority to do it; “all authority” in heaven and on earth, is given unto him. That is because of his faithful obedience to the divine law, and particularly because he had expiated sin by his own death on the cross. Now he is to be exalted to be above all angels and men; the dominion of the universe is to be in his hands, and from this time on. It is so now. He today sits on the throne of the universe and rules the world; all authority in heaven and on earth is given unto him.
That is the question which always is to be determined when a man starts out to do a thing: “By what authority do you do this?” If you, on going out to preach, should be asked, “By what authority do you preach, and are you not taking the honor on yourself?” you answer that he sent you.
We are to see what he told them to do, and we will compare the Commission to a suspension bridge across a river. On one side of the river is an abutment, the authority of Jesus Christ. And at the other end of the bridge we will take this for the abutment: “And lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the end of the age.” On one side of the river stands the authority, and on the other side stands the presence of Jesus Christ Christ in the Holy Spirit. That is to be until the end of the age. Suspended between these two, and dependent on these two, and resting on these two, is the bridge. Let us see exactly, then, what they are to do: First, to “go therefore.” The “therefore” refers to the authority; second, “make disciples of all the nations.” So there are three parts to this first item of the Commission: To go, what to go for, and to whom. If we are Missionary Baptists indeed, this Commission is the greatest of all authority.
One of the deacons, when I took charge of the First Baptist Church at Waco, said to me on one occasion, when I was taking up a foreign mission offering, “Brother Carroll, I am interested in helping you reach these Waco people, and I will help some on associational missions, and state missions, but when it comes to these Chinese and Japs, if you will just bring me one of them, I will try to convert him.” I said to him, “You don’t read your Commission right. You are not under orders to wait until somebody brings you a Jap; you are to go; you are the one to get up and go yourself. You can’t wrap up in that excuse.”
This Commission makes the moving on the part of the commissioned the people of God; they are to go to these people wherever they are. If they are Laplanders, go; if Esquimaux, go; if they are in the tropics, you must go there; if in the temperate region, you must go there; anywhere from the center of the earth to its remotest bounds. That is what makes it missionary one sent, and being sent, he goes. And we can’t send anybody unless he goes somewhere. The first thought, then, is the going. It does not say, “Make the earth come to you,” but “you are to go to them,” and that involves raising the necessary means to get you there. The command to go involves the means essential to going. That is the going law. If the United States shall send one of its diplomats to England, that involves the paying of the expenses of the going.
The next thing is, What are you to do when you get there? You are to make disciples. There are two words here in the Greek one, matheteusate , which means “to make disciples”; the other, didaskontes , which means “teaching.” You do not teach them first, but you make disciples out of them. Now come the questions: How make a disciple? What is discipleship? That will answer the other question, What is necessary to the remission of sins? When is a man a disciple? How far do you have to go in order to make him a disciple? The way to answer that question is to look at what John the Baptist and Christ did. The Gospel of John tells us that John the Baptist made and baptized disciples; that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John did. John made disciples before he baptized them; Jesus made disciples before he baptized them, not afterward. John did not baptize them before he made them disciples; he did not leave off the baptism after he disciplined them. The question of order here is one of great importance. There are three things to be done: (1) Make disciples; (2) baptize disciples; (3) then teach them all things whatsoever Christ commanded. And you must take them in their order. It is not worth while to try to teach a man to do everything that Jesus did when he refuses to be a disciple. Don’t baptize him before he is a disciple. You must not baptize him in order to make him a disciple; you must not attempt to instruct him in Christian duties until he is a disciple.
How important is the answering of that question: “How do you make a disciple?” John made disciples this way: Paul says that John preached repentance toward God, and that they should believe on Jesus to come, i.e., a man who has repented toward God and exercised faith in Jesus Christ, was a disciple; then John baptized him. The Pharisees came to be baptized, but John refused, saying to them: “Think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our Father: for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” “Do not think that entitles you to baptism; that does not at all entitle you to baptism; but you bring forth fruits worthy of your repentance, then I will baptize you, ye offspring of vipers.” And Jesus went forth and preached: “Repent ye, and believe the gospel.” So that from time immemorial the Baptists have contended that the terms of discipleship, or the terms of remission of sins, are repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said that he everywhere testified to both Greeks and Jews, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. I sometimes change that a little by putting first the contrition, or godly sorrow; the Spirit convicts a man, and under that conviction he becomes contrite, has godly sorrow; that contrition leads him to repentance; that leads him to faith, then he is a child of God, right there: “We are all the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”
This is a great part of your qualification to be a preacher that you know how to tell a man what to do to be saved; to know what to tell him. You don’t bury a man to kill him. Baptism is a burial. You bury dead men, but not till they are dead. Nor do you bury a live, raw sinner. You must wait till the Spirit kills him to sin.
Major Penn told of a man who had been lost in the woods. It was in the heat of the day, and he was very thirsty. Late in the day he found his way to a shady little nook, where, bursting from a rock, was a cool mountain spring, and hanging up over the spring was an old-fashioned gourd. He dipped that gourd in the spring and held the water up a little and let it run down his throat, and gloried in drinking out of a gourd. Major Penn made such an apt description of it that one man came up and said, “I’ll go and get me a gourd; that is the best drinking vessel; I know by the way you talk about it.” So he went to a farmer and asked for a gourd. The farmer picked him a green gourd. He cut off the top of it and dipped it into the water. He commenced sipping and drinking. When he discovered the bitter taste he asked, “What in the world is the matter with this gourd?” An old woman said to him, “Why, you were not such a fool as to drink out of a green gourd, were you? You let that gourd get thoroughly ripe; then open it, take out the insides, boil it, let it get dry, and it will be fit to drink out of.” Major Penn said to baptize a man a dry sinner is to bring him up a wet sinner, and it is like drinking out of a green gourd.
This is the answer to the question, What are the terms of discipleship, or, How do you make a disciple? He has godly sorrow. That godly sorrow leads him to repentance a change of mind; that leads him to the Saviour, and when he accepts Jesus Christ he is a child of God. Now you know how to approach a sinner, but don’t you put him under the water at the wrong time and with the wrong object in view.
This brings up another question: Who is to do this baptizing? Is the command here to be baptized, or is it to baptize? Which comes first? Any lawyer will tell you that the command to do a thing, in which you must submit to the act of another, must specify the authorized party to whom you must submit in that act. For example, suppose that after you had come to the United States from a foreign country, you speak to your friends and ask, “How did you settle in the United States?” They tell you that they took out naturalization papers. Then you meet a man and ask him, “Will you give me some naturalization papers?” He gives you the naturalization papers, and says, “You are a citizen of the United States.” Being now a citizen, you come up to vote, but the judge of the election says, “Are you a foreigner?” “Yes, I was till I was naturalized.” Then he asks for your papers. Looking at them he says, “Why, this man was not authorized to do it. The law tells how you shall be naturalized, and you have just picked up a fellow on the streets here that did not count at all.” The law tells us in every state who shall issue naturalization papers, otherwise the citizenship of the state would be vested in a “Tom-Dick-and-Harry” everybody and nobody. It is just that way about baptizing.
I know some who teach that the command is simply to be baptized. I said to one of them once, “Does it make any difference who does the baptizing?” “Well,” he said, “no it doesn’t; the command is simply to be baptized.” I said, “I will give you $100 if you will show me a command to be baptized, with no authorized administrator standing there to administer the ordinance.” “Well,” he said, “look at Paul’s case: Ananias said, ‘Arise and be baptized.’ ” I said, “Who sent Ananias? Ananias had authority from God to baptize Paul. Who sent Philip into the desert? The eunuch said, ‘Here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized?’ but there was the administrator talking to him, a sent administrator.”
And this question is thereby raised: Jesus ascended to heaven and vested this authority to disciple and to baptize, in whom? Here’s a big gathering, not apostles only, because here are five hundred besides those women. Not in that particular crowd alone, for he said, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.”
There is no escape from it, that when he gave this Commission, he gave it to an ecclesiastical body the church. That is why the great church gathered. It is a perpetual commission. No man can deny that these disciples were acting representatively.
“But,” says one, “the Commission was given to the apostles.” But I say, “Where were the apostles?” Paul says that God set them in the church (1Co 12:28 ; Eph 4:11-16 ). He did not set anybody out in the woods. Ask those free lances who run out on the prairie, or in the woods, who set them.
God put these apostles, pastors, etc., in the church, and from the time that God gave this commission he has done the baptizing through the church. You cannot give it just in your own way or notion; you cannot just pick people up and put them in the creek, and say, “I baptize you.”
Here are the things that are essential to a valid baptism: (1) A man must be a disciple, a penitent believer in Jesus Christ; (2) The act of baptism, whatever that commission means. If it means to sprinkle, sprinkle them; if to pour, then pour; if to immerse, then immersion is the act. (3) The design or purpose: Why do it? If we baptize to “make a disciple” or in order that he may become a disciple; that he may be saved; that his sins be remitted, then I deny that it is baptism. It lacks the gospel design, or purpose. (4) It must be done by authority, and that authority is the church.
The church authorizes; the subject must be a disciple, and the act is immersion. The purpose is to make a public declaration, or confession, of faith in Jesus Christ, to symbolize the cleansing from sin, a memorial of Christ’s resurrection, and a pledge of the disciple.
According to your understanding of this commission you bring confusion into Israel, or keep it out.
While I was pastor in Waco, we received a member from another Baptist church. He heard me preach on this commission and came to me and said, “Look here, I want to preach; I believe I am called to preach, and the way you state that, I have not been baptized at all.” I said, “How is that?” “A Campbellite preacher baptized me.” “Did the Baptist church receive that baptism?” He said, “Yes.” I said, “Now suppose you want to preach, and you come before this church for ordination, and they find out that fact, they won’t ordain you. But suppose they did ordain you, wherever you go that would come up against you. They would say, ‘There is a man not scripturally baptized.’ It will hamper your whole ministerial life, and bring confusion into the kingdom of God.” “Well,” he said, “what ought I to do?” I said, “Don’t do anything until you are convinced it is the right thing to do. You study this again, and let me know what your conclusions are.” About a week after he came and said, “I don’t think I have been baptized: he baptized me to make me a disciple. I did not claim to have been a disciple before he baptized me.” “Well,” I said, “did it make you one?” He said, “I do not think it did.” So the blood you must reach before you reach the water. The way is the blood. It has to be applied before you reach the water. It must be reached before you can be saved. So, the blood is before the water. A preacher’s whole future depends on how he interprets this commission.
You will see by referring to the Harmony that Dr. Broadus puts Mark’s commission beside this great Commission on Matthew, thereby indicating that they refer to the same occasion. Assuming this to be correct, I do not discuss the commission of Mark except to say that the first eight verses of Mar 16 are in the manuscripts of Mark’s Gospel, but the latter part of this (Mar 16:9-20 ) which includes the statement, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,” is not in any of the ancient manuscripts. I have facsimiles of the three oldest manuscripts the Sinaitic, the Vatican, and the Alexandrian. Whenever those three agree as to what is the text of a passage we need not go further. It is usually right. But whenever those three leave out anything that is in the text, we may count it spurious. The best scholars among preachers never preach from Mar 16:9-20 , because it is so very doubtful as to whether it is to be received as Scripture. Dr. Broadus says it certainly does not belong to Mark’s Gospel, but that he believes it records what is true; and I am somewhat inclined to believe that too. I think it is true, though it was added by a later hand. Certainly, Mark did not write it. The manuscript evidence is against that part of it. Therefore, I do not consider this as a separate commission of our Lord.
We now take up the fourth commission, that is to say, the commission recorded by Luke, found in Luk 24:44-49 and 1Co 15:7 ; Harmony, pp. 229-230. The remarks upon this commission are these:
1. It is to the eleven apostles.
2. He introduces it by reminding them of his teachings before his death of the witness to him in the law, the prophets, and the psalms, especially concerning his passion, his burial, and his resurrection.
3. Especially to be noted is the fact that he gives them illumination that they may understand these scriptures, and shows the necessity of their fulfilment, in order to the salvation of men.
4. On this necessity he bases the commission here given, which is, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
5. He constitutes them his witnesses of these things.
6. He announces that he will send the promise of the Father, namely, the Holy Spirit, and commands them to wait at Jerusalem until they receive this power from on high to enable them to carry out the work of this commission.
7. The reader should note that, as in the commission recorded by John (Joh 20:22 ) he inspired them to write the New Testament Scriptures, so here he illumined their minds to understand the Old Testament Scriptures. Mark the distinction between inspiration and illumination: The object of inspiration is to enable one to speak or write infallibly; the object of illumination is to enable one to understand infallibly what is written.
8. Further note the unity of the Old Testament and New Testament Scriptures, and their equality in inspiration.
9. Note also the very important item that illumination settles authoritatively the apostolic interpretation of the Old Testament as to the true meaning of these Scriptures. As he inspired men to write the Old Testament, and inspired these men to write the New Testament, so now he illumines these men to understand the Old Testament and to interpret it correctly. In other words, as the Holy Spirit is the real author of the Old Testament, which he inspired, by illumination he shows these men just what he meant by those Old Testament writings. We cannot, therefore, put our unaided interpretation on an Old Testament passage against the Spirit’s own explanation of that passage by the illumination of the apostles’ minds. Due attention to this one fact would have prevented many false expositions of Old Testament Scriptures, particularly in limiting to national Israel what the Spirit spoke concerning spiritual Israel. Very many premillennial expositions of the Old Testament prophecies go astray on this point. They insist on applying to the Jews, as Jews, a great many prophecies which these illumined apostles saw referred to spiritual Israel, and not to fleshly Israel. In the same way do the expositions of the Old Testament passages by modern Jews and the limitations of meaning which destructive critics and other infidels put on the Old Testament Scriptures, go astray. It is wrong, and contrary to sane rules of interpretation, to say that you must not read into an Old Testament passage a New Testament meaning. In that way they wish to limit it to things back there only, but the Holy Spirit illumined the minds of the apostles to understand these Old Testament Scriptures better than the prophets that wrote them. Oftentimes the prophets did not know what they meant, and were very anxious to find out what they did mean. The meaning was revealed to New Testament prophets, and their minds illumined to understand them. I have just finished reading a book which as certainly misapplies about two dozen Old Testament prophecies as the sun shines. In other words, this book interprets them as a modern Jew would interpret them, and exactly contrary to what the apostles say these passages mean. When an illumined apostle tells us the meaning of an Old Testament passage, we must accept it, or else deny his illumination, one or the other. You have no idea how much you have learned if you let this one remark sink into your mind.
10. Yet again, you should especially note in this commission the inseparable relation between repentance and the remission of sins, or forgiveness. The first, repentance, must precede remission of sins, and the relation is constant and necessary in each case of all sin, whether against God, against the church, or against ourselves. If you read carefully Act 2:38 ; Act 3:19 ; Psa 51 , where the sin is against God, you find that a repentance of that sin is made a condition of forgiveness. Then if you read carefully Luk 17:3 and Mat 18:15-17 , where the sin is against ourselves or against the church, the law is, “If he repent, forgive him.”
I saw a notice in The Baptist Standard once where it was assumed that we must forgive a sin before the person who committed it against us has repented of the sin. That would make us out better than God, for God won’t do it. He won’t forgive sin against himself until there is repentance, and he says to Peter, concerning a brother’s trespass against a brother, that if he repent, forgive him. And in Mat 18:15 , it says, “If thy brother sin against thee, go right along and convict him of his sin, and if he hear thee thou hast gained thy brother; if he does not hear thee, tell it to the church; if he does not hear the church, then he is unto thee as a heathen man and a publican.” There are men who insist that you must forgive trespasses against you whether they are repented of or not, meaning that you must be in a forgiving and loving attitude; and that is correct. You must cultivate that spirit which at all times is ready to forgive when repentance comes. But the majority of people who take that position take it in order to get out of some very troublesome work resting on them, and that work is to go right along to convict a man of that sin. It is much easier to say, “I forgive,” and let him alone, than it is to go and show him that he has sinned, and lead him to repentance. And they thus dodge their duty. The largest part of the back-sliding in the church comes from that fact. “If thou seest thy brother sin, then what? Forgive him? No. If thou seest thy brother sin, whether it is a private offense or a general one, report it to the church? No, but go right along and convict him of that sin; and if you fail, take one or two brethren with you; if they fail, let the church try the case. If the church fails, forgive him? No. Let him be to thee a heathen man and a publican.” That is Bible usage.
On the other hand there are some people who rejoice in the thought that they do not have to forgive a man until he repents, and they keep right on hating him. You are not to hate him; you are to love him. You are to have toward him a keen desire to gain him, and under the spirit of that desire, the obligation to gain him is on you personally, and there is no excuse for you. God will not hold you guiltless if you see a brother sin on any point, whether against you, the church, or the state, and do not try to bring him to repentance. It is our duty, as Dr. Broadus puts it, “to go right along and not rave at him,” but convict him that he has sinned, saying, “Now brother, this is wrong, and I have come, not in the spirit of accusation, nor in a disciplinary manner, but as a brother interested in you, and with the earnest desire in my heart to make you see that wrong, and if you ever see it and get it on your conscience and repent and make amends, I will save my brother.”
He says that repentance and remission of sins shall be preached in all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Paul says about that, “I have testified everywhere, both to the Jews and to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The weakness of modern preaching is that the preachers leave repentance out.
So the modern churches leave out the faithful and loving labor which should always precede exclusion. Especially should you note in this commission the unalterable relation between repentance and remission, or forgiveness of sins. The first must precede the second, and the relation is constant and necessary in the case of all sin, whether against God, the church or against ourselves.
The fifth commission is the commission at his ascension. The scriptures bearing on this are: Act 1:6-12 ; Mar 16:19 ; Luk 24:50-53 , and the account of it is found in the Harmony on pages 229-231. Upon this last commission, given just before Jesus was taken up out of their sight, note:
Act 1:8 indicates a “gathering together,” different from any of the preceding ones, and at which they asked this question: “Dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Act 1:9 shows that the occasion of this commission was his ascension into heaven.
Act 1:15 implies that 120 were present at this time. This specific number necessitates that the occasion when 500 brethren were present, mentioned by Paul, must have been at the appointed mountain in Galilee, where the great commission to the church, recorded in Mat 28:16-20 , was given. A very distinguished scholar has said, “Maybe these five hundred brethren were present at the time of his ascension.” It could not be, because one hundred and twenty is given as the number. It could not even have been at any other time than at that appointed in Galilee, where most of his converts were, and where be could get together so large a number as that. The form of the commission here is: “Ye shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.” That is the test for the Commission.
The place where the Commission was given is thus stated: “And he led them out until they were over against Bethany,” and “from the mount called Olivet.” Another commission was given at that place. The place from which he led them is the place of their gathering, to which they returned (Act 1:13 ), and they returned to Jerusalem, to the upper room, where were a multitude together, about 120. And then the writer gives the names of those who abode there, and Peter got up and spoke to these 120.
The commission to be his witnesses suggests the simplicity and directness of their work. I heard a preacher say once with reference to what he did when he went out to an appointment, “I snowed.” He said the Spirit was not with him, and it was just like s snow. Another preacher said, “I ‘hollered,’ and I ‘hollered.’ ” Preachers lose sight of one important function of their office, and that is to be witnesses. That is a simple thing to testify. You are to stand with uplifted hands, and with elbows on the Bible you are to witness before God and to bear witness to what you know to testify.
They were to testify to his vicarious passion, his burial, and his resurrection. Paul makes these three things the gospel. He says, “I delivered unto you first of all that which also I have received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day.” Of what they were eyewitnesses we will see a little later, in some other testimony.
We come now to his sixth commission. This commission is found in Act 9:15-16 ; Act 22:10-15 ; Act 26:15-18 ; Gal 1:15-16 ; Gal 2:7-9 . These scriptures give you the commission of Paul, on which note:
While both Peter and Paul, on proper occasion, preached to both Jews and Gentiles, yet we learn from Gal 2:7-9 that while the stress of Peter’s commission was to the circumcision, the stress of Paul’s commission was to the uncircumcision. He was pre-eminently the apostle to the Gentiles.
The elements of his commission may be gathered from all these scriptures cited. Read every one of them, and you will gather together the elements of his commission. Let us see what these elements were:
(a) He was set apart to his work from his mother’s womb, and divinely chosen.
(b) Personally he must suffer great things.
(c) He received the gospel which he was to preach by direct revelation from the risen Lord. He did not get it from reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Paul’s letters were written before the Gospels were written.
He did not have them to read. He did not go to Jerusalem to talk with them, but he went into Arabia, and therefrom ;the Lord himself, and from the site of the giving of the law, whose relation to the gospel he so clearly cited, he received direct from Jesus Christ the gospel which he wrote.
(d) He was chosen to bear the Lord’s name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.
(e) He was chosen to know God’s will, and to see and hear the Just One, and then to witness to all men what he saw and heard. Now, here comes in Paul as a witness, and this is a part of his commission: “What are you testifying to, Paul?” “I know God’s will; it was revealed to me; I saw Jesus; I saw him with these eyes; Jesus raised; I heard him; I heard his voice.” What next? “He saved my soul.”
One of the most effective sermons I ever preached was on this use that Paul makes of his Christian experience. Seven times in the New Testament Paul states his Christian experience, and for a different purpose every time. When he was arraigned before Agrippa he tells his Christian experience as recorded in Act 9 . In Act 22 , standing on the stairway, looking into the faces of the howling mob of murderous men, he states his Christian experience. Writing to the Romans, as is shown in Rom 7 , he tells his Christian experience. Writing to Timothy he does the same. The man is speaking as a witness.
In one of Edward Eggleston’s books there is an account of a pugnacious Methodist preacher, who was not only ready to preach the gospel, but to fight for the gospel also. On the way to a certain community two men waylaid him and said, “Mr. McGruder, if you will just turn your horse around and go back, we will let you alone, but if you persist in going to this place and interfering with our business, we are going to beat the life out of you.” So the preacher got down off the horse, saying, “I prefer to give you the beating,” and he whipped them both unmercifully. But he got his jaw broken, and that jaw being broken, he could not say a word. In the church he took his pencil and wrote to a sixteen-year-old boy and said, “Ralph, you have got to preach today.” Ralph said, “I have just been converted, you must remember.” “Do you want me to get up here and write a sermon in lead pencil to a crowd?” continued the preacher. “Well,” said Ralph, “I don’t know any sermon.” “If you break down on preaching,” said the preacher, “tell your Christian experience.” So Ralph got up and started to preaching a sermon, looking very much scared, for he had a terror, which was what we would call stage fright. At last he remembered the direction to tell his Christian experience, and the poor boy quit trying to be eloquent, or to expound the Scriptures that he knew very little about, and just told how the Lord Jesus Christ came to him, a poor orphan boy, an outlaw, and saved his soul, and that he wanted to testify how good God was to him. Before he got through there was sobbing all over the house, and a great revival broke out there.
I am telling these things to show that men are commissioned to bear witness, and while you cannot bear witness to facts that you do not know anything about, you can tell what you do know what God has done for you. David says, “Come, all ye that fear the Lord and I will tell you what great things he hath done for my soul, whereof I am glad.” In one of the prophecies concerning Jesus it is written: “I have not hid thy righteousnesses within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation; I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great assembly.”
(f) The fulness of Paul’s commission appears best in Act 26:16-18 , as follows: “Arise, and stand upon thy feet: for to this end have I appeared unto thee, to appoint thee a delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I send thee, to open their eyes, that they may turn: from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me.” Whenever you want to preach Paul’s sermon, take Paul’s commission and analyze it. Paul was speaking before Agrippa. Notice that besides witnessing, Paul wanted to open their eyes (they were spiritually blind) ; that they might turn from darkness to light (then they were in the dark) ; from the power of Satan unto God, (they were under the power of Satan); that they might receive the remission of sins (so that they were unpardoned; and to an inheritance among them that are sanctified (then they were without heritage). Analyze that commission and you will see what he was to do; he puts it all before you plainly in that scripture. So he said to Agrippa, “Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision,” i.e., he just went on and carried out that commission. That is the analysis of the commission of Paul.
The seventh and last commission is the special commission of John Rev 1:1-2 ; Rev 1:9-11 ; Rev 1:19 . This commission is unlike any other; but it is a commission. It is a commission, not to speak, but to write; and in it we have an account of the past tenses. “What did you see, John?” “Well, I saw one of the most wonderful things in this world.” And he tells about Jesus, and how he looked in his risen glory; about the candlesticks and the stars, and what they meant; and then, having thus told what he saw in the midst of the churches, and (see chap. 4) what he saw in heaven, he looks at the present things; the churches, as they are, and heaven as it is. Then follows the last part of his commission: “Write the things which are to come.”
QUESTIONS 1. On the Great Commission (Mat 28:16-20 ) answer: What evidence that this was at an appointed meeting? Where, and who were present?
2. What are the supposable reasons for assembling at this particular place?
3. How does this occasion rank in importance?
4. What is Dr. Landrum’s analysis of this commission?
5. What authority does Christ claim in giving this commission, why was this authority given him and what the pertinency of this statement of our Lord on this particular occasion?
6. Compare this commission to a suspension bridge.
7. What does the first part of the commission prescribe to be done, or what are the three parts of the first item?
8. What does this going involve? Illustrate.
9. After going, then what three things are commanded to be done and what is the order?
10. How make disciples, and what is the teaching and example of John the Baptist and Jesus on this point?
11. Who then must do the baptizing?
12. What are the essentials to a valid baptism?
13. What can you say of Mar 16:9-20 ?
14. To whom was the Commission, recorded in Luk 24:44-49 , given?
15. How does Christ introduce this commission?
16. What does he show in this commission to be a necessity in order to the salvation of men?
17. In this commission what does he say should be done?
18. What does he constitute the disciples in this commission?
19. What promise does he announce to them in this commission?
20. What special gift does he bestow upon the disciples here, what is the difference between inspiration & illumination, and what is the object of each?
21. What especially is noted relative to Old & New Testament Scriptures?
22. What very important question does this illumination settle and how?
23. What is the necessary & constant relation between repentance & forgiveness of sins, and what the application of this principle in the case of all sin?
24. What danger, on the other hand, does the author here warn against?
25. What weakness of modern preaching churches here pointed out?
26. Give the analysis of the Commission of our Lord at the ascension.
27. To whom was Paul especially commissioned to preach?
28. What are the six elements of this commission?
29. What was the condition of the people to whom he was sent as indicated in Act 26:16-18 ?
30. What was the special commission to John, and what is the analysis of it as given in Rev 1:1-2 ; Rev 1:9-11 ; Rev 1:19 ?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Ver. 15. Preach the gospel ] Eckius hence blasphemously inferreth that Christ did never command his apostles to write, but to preach only.
To evey creature ] ThatIsa 1:1-31Isa 1:1-31 . To man, who is a little world, an epitome of every creature. 2. To the Gentiles also, who had been denied this favour of the gospel, as if they had been none of God’s creatures.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
15. ] = , Mat 28:19 ; see note there.
, without the addition of (Matt.) or ( Luk 1:14 only, Luke), is in Mark’s manner (see ch. Mar 13:10 ; Mar 14:9 ). It only once occurs in Matt., viz. Mat 26:13 .
. ] Not to men only, although men only can hear the preaching of the Gospel; all creation is redeemed by Christ see Col 1:15 ; Col 1:23 ; Rom 8:19-23 . ‘Hominibus, primario, Mar 16:16 , reliquis creaturis, secundario. Sicut maledictio, ita benedictio patet. Creatio per Filium, fundamentum redemtionis et regni.’ Bengel in loc.
appears never in the N.T. to be used of mankind alone . Bengel’s ‘reliquis creaturis secundario’ may be illustrated in the blessings which Christianity confers on the inferior creatures and the face of the earth by bringing civilization in its wake.
By these words the missionary office is bound upon the Church through all ages, till every part of the earth shall have been evangelized .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mar 16:15-18 . The Commission (Mat 28:18-20 ). , added to Mt.’s . . .: this more specific and evangelic phrase replaces Mt.’s , and gives more emphatic expression to the universal destination of the Gospel than Mt.’s .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mark
THE WORLD-WIDE COMMISSION
Mar 16:15
The missionary enterprise has been put on many bases. People do not like commandments, but yet it is a great relief and strength to come back to one, and answer all questions with ‘He bids me!’
Now, these words of our Lord open up the whole subject of the Universality of Christianity.
I. The divine audacity of Christianity.
How they must have recoiled when they heard the sweeping command, ‘Go ye into all the world’! It is like the apparent absurdity of Christ’s quiet word: ‘They need not depart; give ye them to eat,’ when the only visible stock of food was ‘five loaves and two small fishes.’ As on that occasion, so in this final commandment they had to take Christ’s presence into account. ‘I am with you.’
So note the obviously world-wide extent of Christ’s claim of dominion. He had come into the world, to begin with, that ‘the world through Him might be saved.’ ‘If any man thirst, let him come.’ The parables of the kingdom of heaven are planned on the same grand scale. ‘I will draw all men unto Me.’ It cannot be disputed that Jesus ‘lived and moved and had His being’ in this vision of universal dominion.
Here emerges the great contrast of Christianity with Judaism. Judaism was intolerant, as all merely monotheistic faiths must be, and sure of future universality, but it was not proselytising-not a missionary faith. Nor is it so to-day. It is exclusive and unprogressive still.
Mohammedanism in its fiery youth, because monotheistic was aggressive, but it enforced outward profession only, and left the inner life untouched. So it did not scruple to persecute as well as to proselytise. Christianity is alone in calmly setting forth a universal dominion, and in seeking it by the Word alone. ‘Put up thy sword into its sheath.’
II. The foundations of this bold claim.
a There is implied the adequacy of Christ for all. He is for all, because He is the only and all-sufficient Saviour. By His death He offered satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. ‘Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else.’ ‘Neither is there ‘salvation in any other, for there is none other name,’ etc.
b The divine purpose of mercy for all. ‘God will have all men to be saved, and to come to a knowledge of the truth.’
c The adaptation of the Gospel message to all. It deals with all men as on one level. It addresses universal humanity. ‘Unto you, O men, I call, and My voice is to the sons of men.’ It speaks the same language to all sorts of men, to all stages of society, and in all ages. Christianity has no esoteric doctrine, no inner circle of the ‘initiated.’ Consequently it introduces a new notion of privileged classes.
Note the history of Christianity in its relation to slavery, and to inferior and down-trodden races. Christianity has no belief in the existence of ‘irreclaimable outcasts,’ but proclaims and glories in the possibility of winning any and all to the love which makes godlike. There is one Saviour, and so there is only one Gospel for ‘all the world.’
III. Its vindication in facts.
In this twentieth century Christianity does not present the marks of an expiring superstition.
Note, further, that the history of missions vindicates the world-wide claim of the Gospel. Think of the wonderful number of converts in the first fifty years of gospel preaching. The Roman empire was Christianised in three centuries! Recall the innumerable testimonies down to date; e.g. the absolute abandonment of idols in the South Sea Islands, the weakening of caste in India, the romance of missions in Central Africa, etc. etc.
The character, too, of modern converts is as good as was that of Paul’s. The gospel in this century produces everywhere fruits like those which it brought forth in Asia and Europe in the first century. The success has been in every field. None has been abandoned as hopeless. The Moravians in Greenland. The Hottentots. The Patagonians Darwin’s testimony. Christianity has constantly appealed to all classes of society. Not many ‘noble,’ but some in every age and land.
IV. The practical duty.
As when they kindle the festival lamps round the dome of St. Peter’s, there is a first twinkling spot here and another there, and gradually they multiply till they outline the whole in an unbroken ring of light, so ‘one by one’ men will enter the kingdom, till at last ‘every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.’
‘He shall reign from shore to shore.
With illimitable sway.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
He said. Probably some time after Mar 16:14, on the eve of the Ascension.
world = kosmos. App-129.
preach = proclaim. Greek. kerusso. App-121.
the gospel = the glad tidings.
every creature = all the creation. Put by Figure of speech Snec doche (of Genus), App-6, for all mankind.
Fulfilled during “that generation”. See Col 1:6, Col 1:23.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
15.] = , Mat 28:19; see note there.
, without the addition of (Matt.) or (Luk 1:14 only, Luke), is in Marks manner (see ch. Mar 13:10; Mar 14:9). It only once occurs in Matt., viz. Mat 26:13.
.] Not to men only, although men only can hear the preaching of the Gospel; all creation is redeemed by Christ-see Col 1:15; Col 1:23; Rom 8:19-23. Hominibus, primario, Mar 16:16, reliquis creaturis, secundario. Sicut maledictio, ita benedictio patet. Creatio per Filium, fundamentum redemtionis et regni. Bengel in loc.
appears never in the N.T. to be used of mankind alone. Bengels reliquis creaturis secundario may be illustrated in the blessings which Christianity confers on the inferior creatures and the face of the earth by bringing civilization in its wake.
By these words the missionary office is bound upon the Church through all ages, till every part of the earth shall have been evangelized.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mar 16:15. , the world) Jesus Christ, the Lord of all, [is the fitting Giver of this command to preach in all the world].-, all), Mar 16:20 [everywhere]. This is said without limitation. If all men, of all places and ages, have not heard the Gospel, [the blame lies with] the successors of the first preachers, and those whose duty it was to have heard it, [who] have not answered the intention of the Divine will.-, creature) to men primarily, Mar 16:16; to the rest of creatures secondarily. As widely extended as was the curse, so widely extended is the blessing. The creation of the world by the Son is the foundation of its redemption and His [coming] kingdom [reign] over it.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
CHAPTER 78
The Great Commission
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. 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.
(Mar 16:15-18)
These words are given to us by Inspiration as our Lords final words to his church, his final words to you and me, as he was leaving this world. Here he tells us what our privileges and responsibilities are as his servants in this world. These are not the privileges and responsibilities of the apostles alone, or of gospel preachers alone. These are the privileges and responsibilities of all Gods people, his servants, in this world.
It is the great privilege and responsibility of every child of God to do what he can for the furtherance of the gospel in his generation, to preach the gospel (and see to it that the gospel is preached) to all the world in the generation in which we live for the glory of Christ and the salvation of Gods elect.
The Great Commission
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature (Mar 16:15). It is utterly impossible for me to state emphatically enough the importance, the comprehensiveness, and the depth of meaning there is in these words. Our Lords charge to us in this one sentence is generally called The Great Commission. This is our commission from our God as long as we live in this world; and it is great!
It is called the great commission, because there is a great need. Our Lord commands us to go into all the world preaching the gospel, because all are lost without the gospel. In every corner of the earth the sons and daughters of Adam are the same. All are fallen, lost, without Christ, without God, without hope, and utterly ignorant of God, his grace, his Son and his salvation. Civilized or uncivilized, in Africa, China, or Great Britain, Mexico, California, or Kentucky, all who are ignorant of the gospel are in a state of wrath and condemnation.
It is called the great commission, because we have a great message. Our Lord here commands us to preach the gospel. This is the work of Gods church in this world. We must not neglect charity: feeding, clothing and educating the poor. But that is not our commission. Our commission is far more important than that. Our Lord commands us to preach the gospel. To preach the gospel is to declare the redemption accomplishments of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are to proclaim to eternity bound sinners the full glorious tidings of salvation by Christs blood and righteousness (Isa 49:1-6). The message we are sent to preach is Christ himself, Gods Salvation. Christ crucified is all the counsel of God, the whole gospel. He is the one in and by whom all the blessings of redemption and grace flow to his elect (Num 6:22-26; Act 20:27; 2Co 2:2; 2Co 13:14).
Gospel preaching is Gods ordained means of grace for chosen sinners. All men and women have a God consciousness. Gods wisdom and power are revealed to all in the splendor of his creation. His law is written upon the hearts of all. Yet, Romans chapters one and two plainly tell us that these things are insufficient for mans salvation. All men know something about God by creation. They are responsible to be holy, because God tells them in their consciences that he demands holiness. Yet, they have no ability to comply with the demands of their own consciences. The light of nature and creation can never convert anyone.
God has ordained the salvation of chosen sinners by the means of gospel preaching. Without the gospel none can ever be saved. This is not my opinion. This is exactly what the Scriptures say. The Holy Spirits exact words are these: It is the gospel preached unto us, By which also ye are saved (1Co 15:2). The preaching of the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, because it is the revelation of the righteousness of God (Rom 1:15-17). It is by the foolishness of preaching that God saves his chosen (1Co 1:21; Eph 1:13; 2Th 2:13-14). Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures (Jas 1:18). The Word of God, preached to sinners by the gospel, is the instrument by which sinners are born again by the Spirit of God (1Pe 1:23-25).
Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. God will save his elect. There is no question about that. The redeemed of the Lord shall be converted by his grace. That is a matter of absolute certainty. Every chosen redeemed sinner shall, at the appointed time of love, be born again by the Holy Spirits irresistible grace and power. The elect of God, purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, shall all be granted the gift of life eternal and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But not one shall be saved without the preaching of the gospel.
Without question, our God could have saved his elect without us. He could send angels, or frogs, or rocks to preach to them, or he could regenerate them without the use of means altogether; but he has ordained the salvation of chosen sinners through the use and instrumentality of other chosen sinners! What a privilege he has bestowed upon us!
Ive often thought I would love to have Dick Clark and Ed McMaans job. I dont have any money of my own; but I would sure like to be the man who carried a ten million dollar check to someones house! Wouldnt you? That would be a great job to have. But you and I have one that is indescribably better. We are the people commissioned of God to carry his salvation to perishing sinners!
Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Eph 3:8-11)
Let the redeemed of the Lord, sinners saved by Gods free grace in Christ, tell sinners everywhere about the Redeemer and about Gods free grace to sinners in him. Let us give ourselves relentlessly to this glorious work of preaching the gospel. Let us all do whatever we can to fulfil our commission in this age for the glory of Christ.
The General Call
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned (Mar 16:16). The effectual, irresistible call of the Spirit always produces faith in Christ. No man can do that. It is the work of God alone. Yet, the effectual call and irresistible grace of God the Holy Spirit comes to elect, redeemed sinners through the general call that is issued to all men in the preaching of the gospel.
This general call is neither more nor less than the preaching of the gospel to all men. We preach the gospel to all people indiscriminately, because we do not know who Gods elect are and because our Lord commands us to do so. Our responsibility is determined by the Word of God, not the decree of God. I repeat myself deliberately. This is the means by which God saves his elect. Richard Sibbes once stated, All good things come by preaching, because he understood that all Gods elect have salvation and all its blessings conveyed to them by the gospel.
The gospel we preach carries the promise of grace, salvation and eternal life to all who trust the Lord Jesus Christ. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. The only way any sinner can ever be saved is by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And every sinner in the world who believes on the Son of God is saved.
It is our faith in Christ that makes our calling and election sure (Heb 11:1-6). Faith in Christ is the one thing needful. He that believeth not shall be damned.
This is the matter of great concern. Do we have this gift of faith in Christ? Multiplied thousands are washed in the waters of baptism, who are not washed in the blood of Christ! Multiplied thousands attend church every Sunday, who have never yet worshipped the Lord Jesus Christ! Multiplied thousands eat at the Lords Table, who have never yet tasted the grace of God in Christ. It is not doctrinal orthodoxy that unites our souls with the Son of God, but faith in him.
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. (1Jn 5:10-13)
The gospel gives the promise of grace, salvation and eternal life to all who believe on the Son of God. But in preaching the gospel we also set before eternity bound sinners the warning of certain and eternal wrath for all who refuse to bow to the Son of God, trusting him alone as their Lord and Savior. But he that believeth not shall be damned.
How fearful the thought! How awful the words! Yet, they are true and faithful, and must be proclaimed by those who would be true and faithful to the souls of men. God must and will punish sin. He will send you to hell forever, if you refuse to be saved by the merits of his dear Son. O that men were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
The Gospel Confession
Look at verse sixteen again, and learn that baptism, the believers confession of the gospel, the believers confession of faith in Christ, is not an insignificant matter, but rather a matter of tremendous importance. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
Let me be crystal clear. Baptism does not save anyone. Baptism does not wash away sin. Baptism does not convey grace. Baptism does not regenerate. Baptism does not contribute anything to the saving of our souls.
However, believers baptism and faith in Christ are intimately connected. True, saving faith in Christ and obedience to Christ go hand in hand. Where there is no obedience to Christ, there is no faith in Christ. Faith without works is dead!
There are several things which need to be understood about this blessed ordinance of the gospel.
1st Baptism follows faith in Christ; it cannot precede faith. Without faith in Christ, baptism is nothing but an empty, meaningless religious ritual. It serves no purpose, except to make the unbelieving ritualist twofold more the child of hell than he was before.
Infant baptism not only does not help children, it positively hurts them. It gives them hope without faith, as they grow up believing they are Christians, rather than being faithfully taught that they must be born again.
2nd Believers baptism is an act of obedience to Christ our Lord. As such, it is the answer of a good conscience toward God.
3rd Baptism is the means by which believers first confess their faith in Christ publicly. It is a picture of the gospel, a picture of Christs death, burial and resurrection, and our death, burial and resurrection with him representatively. It is a public identification with Christ, his gospel and his people. Believers baptism is a line of separation from the world and its religion. It is a pledge of commitment to Christ. It is a confession of our hope of resurrection with Christ at the last day.
The Gracious Confirmation
Look at the great, gracious, encouraging promises given in Mar 16:17-18. Our Lord Jesus knew what great obstacles we would have to overcome, what tremendous difficulties we would have to endure, what battles we would have to fight, and how easily we would be inclined to give up the effort. Therefore, he cheers and encourages us with the promise of divine, supernatural, omnipotent power to attend our labors, power that will be unceasingly confirmed to us.
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.
It must be stated emphatically, in this day of charismatic chaos and confusion, that the age of signs, and tongues, and miracles ended with the apostolic age and the completion of the Scriptures.
These things were literally fulfilled in the book of Acts, in the apostolic age, the formation years of the church. But no one has these apostolic gifts today. They were gifts by which the apostles were confirmed as Gods messengers, as his inspired spokesmen in the writing of Holy Scripture (Heb 1:1-2; Heb 2:3-4).
Having the complete Word of God, God no longer speaks by dreams, and visions, and signs, and wonders. There is no need for me to speak in tongues or perform a miracle to convince anyone that my message is of God. All you need to do is compare what I say with Gods Word. Since that which is perfect has come (The Book of God!), then that which was in part has been put away. If miracles were every day events, if they were common things, they would not be miracles!
However, just because the age of physical miracles has past, that does not mean that this text has nothing for us. In fact, its spiritual implications are even more delightful and blessed than the physical miracles performed in apostolic times. Our Lord here promises us that, as we go into all the world preaching the gospel, his presence and power will be with us incessantly, and will be manifestly confirmed to us.
It is a great pity that our faith is so weak that we need for our God to confirm his Word to us; but it is a great mercy that our God condescends to our weakness. His eye is always upon us. His arm is always stretched out for us. His power is manifestly confirmed to us (Isa 59:19).
The next time you go to the house of God, the next time you are gathered to worship the Lord Jesus, look around and behold men wondered at. The household of faith is a house of miracles, divine miracles, by which our God confirms the saving power of his grace revealed in the gospel we preach. His people are a people out of whom the Lord has cast seven devils, by the power of his grace. We are a people who speak with new tongues. Mouths once filled with cursing and bitterness are now filled with mercy and grace! His are a people who are forced every day to take up the serpents of this world and drink the deadly concoctions of the wicked. Yet, we are unhurt by the serpents bites and the poisons of the ungodly!
We are a people who were sick with the deadly palsy of sin, who have been restored to health by the grace of God, a people who, like Lazarus, have been raised from the dead. Gods saints are a people who are literally going through the world, preaching the gospel, and thereby laying hands upon multitudes of sin-sick, impotent folk, dead in trespasses and sins, who are recovered by the grace of God!
Let us take this great commission to heart. Let each believer take it as the Word of God to him personally. Let every gospel church take this as the great commission given by the Son of God to it, as though it were given to that one assembly exclusively.
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. 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.
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
Christs Commission to His Church
Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation.Mar 16:15.
These are the last words recorded of all Christs communications to His apostles. Let us think what would be the effect on those who heard it of such a parting charge. It made all the difference to the apostles, whether they should simply be holders and possessors of truth and blessings, teachers and ministers in their own place and among their own people of the grace in which they believed, or whether they should be missionaries of itmessengers running to and fro, and never pausing, never resting in their ceaseless and unwearied wanderings, to carry the news onward and onward, farther and farther on, to ever new hearers and more and more unknown lands. So St. Paul understood it: From Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricumthe type of all that was barbarous and uncouthI have fully preached the gospel of Christ.
Those parting words of Christ put the stamp on Christianity that it was to be a universal religion; a religion, not merely universal in the sense that it should be freely open to all who came to seek for it, but universal in the sense that it should go out and seek for men in their own homes; a religion of conquest and progress in all directions; a religion which should be satisfied with nothing short of having won over the whole creation, the tribes of men of every language and colour, from north to south, on whom the sun rises and on whom it sets, to the obedience of Christ, and to the Kingdom of His Father.
The subject therefore is a missionary topic in its widest sense. We may study it under three main headings:
I.The Responsibility of the Church
II.The Preparation of the Missionary
III.The Scope of the Commission
I
The Responsibility of the Church
This is Christs last great Easter command.
1. The first thought which suggests itself is the practical duty. Go ye and preach. The matter was literally left in the apostles hands, it is literally left in ours. Jesus has returned to the throne; ere departing He announced the distinct command. There it is, and it is age-long in its application,Preach, tell of the name and the work of God manifest in the flesh. First evangelise, then disciple the nations. Bring to Christ, then build up in Christ. There are no other orders; we must think imperially of Christ and the Church, and our anticipations of success must be world-wide in their sweep.
It used to be the fashion to laugh at Missions. You know how they are represented and talked about in the pages of Dickens and Thackeray. That time has passed away. It is no longer possible to laugh at them. The serious statesman feels that, if not the missionary, then he knows not who is to create the bond of spiritual fellowship between East and West, Africa and Europe. And he looks eagerly towards this missionary effort. People can no longer laugh. It is the biggest thing in the world that has to be done, and a great and consuming desire has seized the souls of people of all sorts and kinds. The mingling of the nations gives us our great opportunity, our great responsibility. It becomes a watchwordthe evangelisation of the world in this generation. These are great desires, ideal desires. Remote, you say. You know not how they are to be realised. What is the use of bothering ourselves with things that seem so far off and unpractical? That feeling is the contrary of the Bible. The Bible always busies itself with things that are unpractical. The mark of a Saint is that he busies himself with things that are remote and unattainable.1 [Note: Bishop Gore.]
The Duke of Wellington was once asked, Is it any use to preach the Gospel to the Hindu? The Duke said, What are your marching orders? Oh! was the reply, our marching orders undoubtedly are to preach the gospel to every creature. Very well, was the withering answer, You must obey the command. You have nothing to do with results.2 [Note: T. Lloyd Williams.]
2. The command is accompanied with a reproof.He upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen (Mar 16:14). Remembering that there are still millions of the human race who have never heard the Gospel, despite the fact that nineteen centuries have rolled away since the command was first givenif the Lord Jesus Christ appeared among us some happy Easter Day, should we wonder if He would upbraid us for our unbelief and the hardness of our hearts?
3. The command is addressed to all classesto women as well as to men. It is given first in another form to Mary Magdalene: Go unto my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and unto my God and your God (St. Joh 20:17). It is repeated to the other women who had come to anoint the body of Jesus, as they were wending their way back sadly to their homes. We feel at once there is a difference between them and the Magdalene; she affords us the highest example of sorrow and love, and she is therefore first to seek Him; when she sees the angels she shows no fear, so absorbed is she in the one thought about her Lord whom she had lost. But not so the other women. True, their love was deep, their sorrow was keen; but they came more calmly, debating, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? Jesus Christ would send forth as His messengers, not only those who are filled with impulsive love to Him, but the calm, the calculating, and the prudent. You who see the stone and know the difficulties in the way, you who feel the awe and sacredness of the holy message; there is need for you to go and tell; there are some who will believe your story, while they will account a Magdalene with her ecstatic love as but an enthusiastic fanatic.
II
The Preparation of the Missionary
In the context of the following verse, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned, we find the fundamental principles on which the equipment of the missionary for his work is based. Believe and be baptized, is the watchword of New Testament teaching. What do these words mean to us?Belief and Baptism.
1. Baptism.Take the second first. The Catechism bids the catechist ask his pupil what it means. And the pupil is to reply: I mean an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace, given unto us, ordained by Christ Himself, as a means whereby we receive the same and a pledge to assure us thereof. Here the thoughts specially enforced are that the Sacrament, the Baptismal rite, the Eucharistic rite, is outward and visible, a thing which touches and affects the common senses, and can serve therefore as a sign recognisable by them; and then that it stands related to something inward and spiritual, belonging to the region of the inner man and to the unseen and eternal life, which something is the grace of God, His free saving action and virtue for us and in us.
Further, this sign is what it is by virtue of the direct institution of our Lord, by whom it was given, ordained as nothing else of the outward and visible order was expressly sanctioned by Him.
Lastly, His sacred purpose in such gift and command is intimated. The sign is a means for the reception of the grace, a channel by which our being finds contact with the spiritual action and virtue of God for our salvation. It is also a pledge to assure us thereof, a token tangible and visible whereby we are to grasp with new certainty the fact of our possession, to be filled, as we contemplate the sign, with the animating conviction that this wonderful gift, the grace of God, is, for our future as well as for our present, a sober certainty of waking bliss.1 [Note: H. C. G. Moule, Faith: Its Nature and Its Work, 190.]
2. Belief.What is belief in the Christian sense of the term? Is it not a reliance upon the intuitions rather than upon the reason? With the heart man believes unto righteousness. Look at the whole method of Christs teaching and you will see at once what this definition means. Has it ever struck you that the silences and the omissions in the teaching of Christ are remarkable? He does not attempt to prove the existence of God; He takes it for granted. He does not offer a single argument for the existence of the soul, or the prolongation of human destiny beyond the earth, or the certainty of an unseen spiritual world. He shows us a publican at prayerthat is His way of proving the existence of a soul. He shows us Dives and Lazarusthat is His way of making us aware of the immortal destinies of man, and of his relation to an unseen world. Why is Christ silent upon the arguments which make for these great convictions? Because He knows that no argument can give them cogency. They lie outside the reason. They are witnessed to by the intuitions of mankind. It is to these intuitions that Christ appeals, and His appeal was justified by the astonishing fact that while men eagerly disputed His teaching upon conduct, the worst man never disputed His fundamental assumptions of the existence of God, of the soul, and of an unseen place of judgment behind the veils of time. Christ, in His own perfection and purity of life, suggests God; the publican at prayer vindicates the soul, for mankind from the beginning of the ages has been a creature conscious of a need for prayer; the inequalities of life displayed in Dives and Lazarus suggest a spiritual universe where wrong is righted, and final justice done to mankind.
You will perhaps say that this is to beg the entire case; and so it would be, if man were no more than a rational creature. But man is an irrational as well as a rational creature, and all that is noblest in him springs from a kind of redeeming irrationality. Love, heroism, martyrdom, are all acts of sublime irrationality. Put to the test, we refuse to be governed wholly by our reason, and we refuse every day. A man who never thought or acted, save upon the full consent of his reason, would be a sorry creature, and his life would be a dismal spectacle. There is a logic of the heart which is stronger than the logic of the reason.
Harriet Martineau speaks of the real joy she found in deliverance from what she called the decaying mythology of the Christian religion. She took positive pleasure in the thought of its approaching annihilation. She, and those who thought with her, announced as a sort of gospel to mankind struggling in the wilderness, that the promised land was a mirage, and they expected mankind to welcome the intelligence. That was the spirit of the old materialism; the later materialism is full of incurable despair and sadness. It is no longer sure that it is right. It is no longer able to disguise the truth that there are a hundred things in heaven and earth which were not dreamed of in its philosophy. It has fired its last shot, it has announced the promised land a mirage; and yet mankind follows the pillar of cloud and fire. In the heart of the materialist of to-day there is a new yearning toward faith, an ardent wish to believe more than his reason will permit him to believe.1 [Note: W. J. Dawson.]
No logic or reason would justify George Eliot, who had repudiated Christianity as vigorously as had Harriet Martineau, in reading Thomas Kempis all her life, and having the immortal meditations of the old monk at her bedside as she died; but the logic of the heart justified her, and we love her for submitting to it. What had she, a woman who thrust aside all the theologies as incredible, to do with a Dinah Morris preaching Christ crucified, upon a village green? Yet she does paint Dinah Morris, and through the lips of the Methodist evangelist she lets her own soul utter a message which her intellect rejected.2 [Note: Ibid.]
3. There must be a readiness to obey on the part of the missionary. Begin at home is an axiom of Christianity, but as an excuse for not taking part in missionary work it is futile. Begin at home means begin at your own character, for what you are will determine what you do; but beginning is not the whole. If you are resolved, in this supreme work of character-building, in this supreme work of self-conquest, to cultivate or concentrate every phase of your energy upon yourself until your individual victory is complete, then it will mean only the utterest woe of self-defeat. If we say we will not stretch out a hand to help others until there is nothing in us to prevent the question, What lack I yet? it will be simply that we lack the one thing without which is the lack of all.
When the proposal to evangelise the heathen was brought before the Assembly of the Scotch Church in 1796, it was met by a resolution, that to spread abroad the knowledge of the gospel amongst barbarous and heathen nations seems to be highly preposterous, in so far as philosophy and learning must in the nature of things take the precedence, and that while there remains at home a single individual every year without the means of religious knowledge, to propagate it abroad would be improper and absurd. And then Dr. Erskine called to the Moderator, Rax me that Bible, and he read the words of the great commission, which burst upon them like a clap of thunder.1 [Note: R. F. Horton.]
4. A Desire to spread the Light.When the Christian faith, having begun its life, almost immediately began to spread itself abroad, it was doing two things. It was justifying its Lords prophecy, and it was realising its own nature. At the very beginning there came a moments pause and hesitation. We can see in those chapters of the Book of Acts how for a few years the faith could not quite believe the story of itself which was speaking at its heart. It heard the ends of the earth calling it, but it could not see beyond the narrow coasts of Juda. But the beauty of those early days is the way in which it could not be content with that. It is not the ends of the earth calling in desperation for something which was not made to help them, which had no vast vocation, which at last started out desperately to do a work which must be done, but for which it felt no fitness in itself. The heart of the Church feels the need of going as much as the ends of the world desire that it should come. It is deep answering to deep.2 [Note: Phillips Brooks.]
Do we claim with a passion of desire to see the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ? When John the Baptist came, he came to create an Israel of expectation. It was of that Israel of expectation that our Lord said, From the days of John the Baptist till now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and men of violence take it by force. By the cryings of their desire they have forced the hand of God and brought the Kingdom of God near. So it is. God will not save us without our own correspondence. If He delays long, if we do not see so much as a glimpse of one of the days of the Son of Man, it is because we desire it so little, because we find so much acquiescence in things as they are, so much miserable contentment, so little eagerness of desire. God gave them their desire, and sent leanness withal into their soul. If you want little, or, rather, if your wants are small and selfish, if the things you really care about are the things that touch yourself, your own personal religion, to get a church you like and comfortable things,things that touch your own family, your own interests, your own circle,if your desires are narrow, and selfish and small, then, lo! God will give you your desire, and send leanness withal into your soul. You have none of the eagerness and generosity of desire which belong to the really blessed. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.1 [Note: Bishop Gore.]
The old historian, Diodorus, tells of a fire in the Pyrenees which burned off the forests and penetrated the soil until a stream of pure silver gushed forth and ran down the mountain-side. This is manifest fable. But there will be a more marvellous story to tell when the fire of Gods Spirit begins to burn in the hearts of His people.2 [Note: D. J. Burrell.]
A missionary explained how he came to enter the missionary field: In coming home one night, driving across the west prairie, I saw my little boy hurrying to meet me; the grass was high on the prairie, and suddenly he dropped out of sight. I thought he was playing, and was simply hiding from me; but he did not appear as I expected he would. Then the thought flashed upon my mind, Theres an old well there, and he has fallen in. I hurried up to him, reached down into the well and lifted him out; and as he looked up in my face, what do you think he said? O, papa, why didnt you hurry? Those words never left me, they kept ringing in my ears until God put a new and deeper meaning into them, and bade me think of others who are lost, of souls without God and without hope in this world; and the message came to me as a message from the heavenly Father: Go, and work in my name; and then from that vast throng, a pitiful, despairing cry rolled into my soul as I accepted Gods call: O, why dont you hurry? 3 [Note: A. P. Hodgson.]
Time greatly short,
O time so briefly long,
Yea, time sole battleground of right and wrong:
Art thou a time for sport
And for a ?Song of Solomon 4 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti.]
5. A Work of Patience.To preach the gospel to the whole creation. This is a work of patience. We need the patience which dominated the spirit of St. Paul so that he could write: Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his bodys sake, which is the church (Col 1:24). And we can find a still greater example of patiencethe patience of Jesus, portrayed by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews: Now we see not yet all things subjected to him. But we behold him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour, that by the grace of God he should taste death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings (Heb 2:8-10).
When they kindle the festival lamps round the dome of St. Peters at Rome, there is first a twinkling spot here and there, and gradually they multiply till they outline the whole in an unbroken ring of light. So one by one men will enter the Kingdom, till at last every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.1 [Note: A. Maclaren.]
So mine are these new fruitings rich,
The simple to the common brings;
I keep the youth of souls who pitch
Their joy in this old heart of things;
Who feel the Coming young as aye,
Thrice hopeful on the ground we plough;
Alive for life, awake to die;
One voice to cheer the seedling Now.
Full lasting is the song, though he,
The singer passes; lasting too,
For souls not lent in usury,
The rapture of the forward view.2 [Note: George Meredith.]
III
The Scope of the Commission
Its scope will depend upon the meaning we put into the word gospel. Go ye and preach the gospel.
i. The Gospel
1. What is this Gospel of Good News which we are to preach to the whole creation? We may find the answer in the word Atonement. The Atonement of Christ culminated in His Resurrection and Ascension. The whole teaching of St. Paul turned round Christ crucified, and the power of his resurrection. He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things (Eph 4:10). It is this power that is able to transform mens livesthis is the Gospel which the Church is still called upon to preach to the heathen.
2. Perhaps our age unduly magnifiesand yet is it possible to magnify?the love of God manifested in the great propitiation of Christs death. We must hold both, Gods righteousnessfor what is God without righteousness?and His lovefor what is God without love for a world of sinners? There is the propitiation which sets forth hope. We cannot reconcile them, we often say; we cannot see how the same act of the Saviour can exhibit both sides of the Divine character. Perhaps we cannot. St. Paul and St. John could; they could see no inconsistency. There is no opposition; they are two sides of the same shield; we can do without neither, we need both equally, for God must be to us the supreme name for righteousness, just as He must be the supreme name for the love without which there would have been no redemption, no atonement for a lost world. We know it is sometimes said that the Eastern branch of the Church dwelt rather upon the Incarnation, and the Western upon the Redemption. But that may be pushed too far. The fact is, and we rejoice to think that it is a fact, that the whole Church, in every age, has been substantially one in the way in which it has held the central doctrine of the faith. On that doctrine there is no division; there is perfect unity in the Church.
We have an example in the hymns of the universal Church. What do they say?
Now I have found the ground wherein
Sure my souls anchor may remain;
The wounds of Jesus for my sin,
Before the worlds foundation slain.
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died.
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.
And perhaps all the doctrine of the Cross was never more simply or more perfectly stated than in Mrs. Alexanders childrens hymn:
There is a green hill far away.1 [Note: J. S. Banks.]
3. But is there not a reactionary tendency in our immediate times,not so much to magnify the love of God in the Atonement, as to drift away from a simple trust in the saving value of Christs sacrifice? Are we not now, if we may so speak, impatient of the word Atonement? It shocks our sense of justice; we want to set our lives on a moral basis for ourselves. This may be very well as a theory, the desire which prompts it may be worthy, but will it work in practice? Which of us does not say in his heart, Oh, if I had not sinned before, I could now go on all right. No, sin needs its remedy, as much now as it did in Christs day. And we can find that remedy, now as then, only at the Cross. All sacrifice is beautiful if offered in a right spirit, and Christ will not despise our poor offerings; but our greatest sacrifices can express their fullest meaning to the heart of the Eternal Father only when they are offered up in union with the Great Sacrifice of His Son.
Look, Father, look on His anointed Face,
And only look on us as found in Him:
Look not on our misusings of Thy grace,
Our prayer so languid, and our faith so dim;
For lo! between our sins and their reward
We set the Passion of Thy Son our Lord.
ii. The Words of the Commission
The universality of the commission is found in the meaning of the Gospel. But we have also the express words of Christ: Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. These words unfold the whole plan of the Universality of the Kingdomwhat Maclaren calls the Divine audacity of Christianity. Take the scene. A mere handful of men, how they must have recoiled when they heard the sweeping command, Go ye into all the world! It is like the apparent absurdity of Christs quiet word: They need not depart; give ye them to eat, when the only visible stock of food was five loaves and two small fishes. As on that occasion, so in this final command, they had to take Christs presence into account. I am with you alway. So note the obviously world-wide extent of Christs dominion. He had come into the world, to begin with, that the world through him might be saved. If any man thirst, let him come. The parables of the Kingdom of heaven are planned on the same grand scaleI will draw all men unto me. It cannot be disputed that Jesus lived in this vision of universal dominion. Here emerges the great contrast of Christianity with Judaism. Judaism was intolerant, as all merely monotheistic faiths must beand sure of future universality, but it was not a proselytisingnot a missionary faith. Nor is it so to-day. It is exclusive and unprogressive still. Muhammadanism in its fiery youth, because monotheistic, was aggressive, but it enforced outward profession only, and left the inner life untouched. So it did not scruple to persecute as well as to proselytise. Christianity is alone in calmly setting forth a universal dominion, and in seeking it by the Word alone. Put up thy sword into its sheath.
The missionary battle-cry of the Moravian Brotherhood is To win for the Lamb that was slain the reward of His suffering. They are a humble people, smallest of all in figures, but a mighty host in the words redemption. They have one missionary for every fifty-eight members at home. They are careful in the observance of memorial days. One of these is the Day of Prayer. On August 26, 1727, they set their great vigil going. Twenty-four brethren and twenty-four sisters decided that they would keep up a continuous circle of prayer through the twenty-four hours of the day, each brother, each sister, in their own apartments accepting by lot the hour when they would pray.1 [Note: A. P. Hodgson.] They have put their sword in its sheath, and their weapon is prayer.
1. The word Universality gives rise to two thoughts.
(1) It finds in the Gospel a Father for everybody. In all the world it finds not a single orphan. The sorrowing are everywhere; the thoughtless, depraved, debauched, ignorant, wretched, the sinful are everywhere. But nowhere an orphan. Whether in the jungles of Africa, the plains of Syria, the crowded cities of China, or amid the civilisations of Europe and America, the great Infinite Father Spirit broods over the spirits of men. Men may forget the Father, but He does not forget them. Into whatever desert, across whatever valley of sin, whatever slough of despond, whatever depths of despair, He follows them, wraps them about as with a garment, and whispers into their timid ears the sweet assurance, Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.
There came to my office one day an old lady with white hair, starved features, and tottering steps, leaning upon a cane. There was a scared, timid look on her careworn face as she sank heavily into a chair and told me her pathetic story. It was very simple. An utterly debauched and worthless son, who for thirty years had brought nothing but sorrow to the heart of his mother, had been arrested for an assault from which his victim had died. He was lying in jail awaiting trial. The bruised heart of the aged mother yearned for her boy, for he was still a boy to her. In a moment of indignation at what seemed to me outraged affection, I asked, Why do you not leave him alone? He does not care for you. Her eyes filled afresh with tears, her head sank lower, as she answered with infinite tenderness, No, I know he does not care for me, but I care for him, and he cannot have a mother long.1 [Note: G. L. Perin in Good Tidings, 139.]
(2) Universality means a cure for every form of sin, and for all the sin of the world. It does not believe in a defeated God. It is a victorious Gospel. One cannot help feeling sorry for the God whom some people believe in. He is a kind-hearted, benevolent God, who means well, but His world is too big. It has slipped away from His control and it is going to ruin at breakneck speed.
Christ, when He died,
Deceived the cross,
And on deaths side
Threw all the loss:
The captive world awaked and found
The prisoners loose, the jailor bound.
O dear and sweet dispute
Twixt deaths and loves far different fruit,
Different as far
As antidotes and poisons are:
By the first fatal tree
Both life and liberty
Were sold and slain;
By this they both look up and live again.
O strange mysterious strife,
Of open death and hidden life!
When on the cross my King did bleed,
Life seemed to die, death died indeed.1 [Note: Richard Crashaw.]
2. Preach the gospel to the whole creation. The commission according to St. Mark is all too superficially read by Christian people. Go ye into all the world, does not merely mean, Travel over the surface of the earth and speak to men; the term world (kosmos) includes man and everything beneath him. The preaching of the Gospel to individual men is the beginning of the work, but the Gospel is to be proclaimed to the whole creation. We can reach the kosmos and the whole creation with the evangel only through men. In the proportion in which men hear the evangel, and, yielding to it, are remade by the healing ministry of the Servant of God, they become instruments through which He is able to reconstruct the order of the whole creation.
Chaos created the agony of the Cross. Wherever Christ came into the midst of disorder, He suffered. He, before whose vision there flamed perpetually the glory of the Divine ideal, felt the anguish of God in the presence of the degradation of that ideal. All wounds and weariness, all sin and sorrow, not only of man, but through man in creation, surged upon His heart in waves of anguish. He called His disciples into fellowship with Himself in this suffering. The suffering of the flowers can never be cured if we do not touch them. The agony of the birds can never be ended save as we care for them. The earth can never be lifted from its dulness and deadness, and made to blossom into glorious harvest, save as it is touched by the life of renewed humanity. That is the story of the sufferings of Christ. He came into the world, Himself of the eternal Order, full of grace and truth, and in the consciousness of chaos and disorder He suffered.2 [Note: G. Campbell Morgan.]
The garden of a truly Christian man ought to be the most beautiful in the whole district. When it is not so, it is because he is not living in the full power of the risen Christ. I sometimes think that if I am to judge the Christianity of London by looking at its gardens, it is an extremely poor thing. Let us keep hold of the philosophy of the simple illustration. That conception of Christian responsibility which aims at the saving of individual men, while it is utterly careless of the groaning of creation, is entirely out of harmony with the meaning of this commission. The home of the Christian man ought to be a microcosm of the Millennial Kingdom; and all the things of Gods dear worldand how He loves it, flowers, and birds, and forcesought to feel the touch of redeemed humanity, and be lifted into fuller life thereby.1 [Note: G. Campbell Morgan.]
There was a Power in this sweet place,
An Eve in this Eden; a ruling Grace
Which to the flowers, did they waken or dream,
Was as God is to the starry scheme.
I doubt not the flowers of that garden sweet
Rejoiced in the sound of her gentle feet;
I doubt not they felt the spirit that came
From her glowing fingers through all their frame.
She lifted their heads with her tender hands,
And sustained them with rods and osier-bands;
If the flowers had been her own infants, she
Could never have nursed them more tenderly.
And all killing insects and gnawing worms,
And things of obscene and unlovely forms,
She bore, in a basket of Indian woof,
Into the rough woods far aloof,
In a basket, of grasses and wild-flowers full,
The freshest her gentle hands could pull
For the poor banished insects, whose intent,
Although they did ill, was innocent.2 [Note: Shelley, The Sensitive Plant.]
3. Man in the economy of God is king of the world, but he has lost his sceptre, has lost the key of the mysteries of the world in which he lives, and cannot govern it as he ought to govern, is unable to realise the creation that lies beneath him. Therefore the kingdom of man is a devastated kingdom, because he is a discrowned king; or in the language of Isaiah, the earth also is polluted under the inhabitants thereof. Mans moral disease has permeated the material universe; or as St. Paul says, the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. Mans moral regeneration will permeate the material universe, and issue in its remaking.
Turning to the Book of Psalms, that wonderful literature of Hebrew expectation and hope and confidence, we hear one of the singers of Israel as he first inquires
What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
And then, as in harmony with the original story of creation, he declares
Thou hast put all things under his feet:
All sheep and oxen,
Yea, and the beasts of the field;
The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea,
Whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
We pass to the New Testament, and the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, a logician as well as a poet, declares, after quoting from the singer of Israel, that all the Divine intention is seen realised in Christ as representative Man. Now we see not yet all things subjected to him. But we behold him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus. He thus affirms that while all things are not yet seen under the perfect dominion of man, Jesus is seen, the risen Christ, and the vision of Him is the assurance that the whole creation will yet be redeemed from its groaning and travailing in pain, and realise the fulness of its beauty and glory.
Perfect I call Thy plan:
Thanks that I was a man!
Maker, remake, complete,I trust what Thou shalt do!1 [Note: R. Browning, Rabbi Ben Ezra.]
Christs Commission to His Church
Literature
Bramston (J. T.), Fratribus, 200.
Brooks (Phillips), The Mystery of Iniquity, 346.
Church (R. W.), Village Sermons, 3rd Ser., 194.
Dawson (W. J.), The Evangelistic Note, 273.
Hodgson (A. P.), Thoughts for the Kings Children, 199.
Jefferson (C. E.), The Character of Jesus, 121.
Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, New Ser., v. 451.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions, St. Mark ix.xvi., 308.
Martin (S.), Rain upon the Mown Grass, 126.
Morgan (G. C.), The Missionary Manifesto, 1, 55.
Stuart (E. A.), Children of God, 45.
Williams (T. Lloyd), Thy Kingdom Come, 9.
Christian World Pulpit, lxiii. 346 (Banks); lxvii. 297 (Shepherd); lxxiii. 284 (Atkin).
Contemporary Pulpit, vii. 203 (Hardy).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
Go: Mat 10:5, Mat 10:6, Mat 28:19, Luk 14:21-23, Luk 24:47, Luk 24:48, Joh 15:16, Joh 20:21, 1Jo 4:14
into: Mar 13:10, Psa 22:27, Psa 67:1, Psa 67:2, Psa 96:3, Psa 98:3, Isa 42:10-12, Isa 45:22, Isa 49:6, Isa 52:10, Isa 60:1-3, Luk 2:10, Luk 2:11, Luk 2:31, Luk 2:32, Act 1:8, Rom 10:18, Rom 16:26, Eph 2:17, Col 1:6, Col 1:23, Rev 14:6
Reciprocal: Num 29:1 – blowing 1Ki 7:25 – General 2Ch 4:4 – three Psa 40:9 – preached Psa 72:16 – There Psa 96:2 – show Psa 98:2 – made Pro 8:1 – General Pro 15:7 – lips Isa 25:6 – all people Isa 34:1 – Come Isa 51:5 – my salvation Isa 52:7 – publisheth Isa 57:19 – Peace Isa 62:11 – the Lord Isa 66:19 – I will send Jer 1:7 – for thou shalt Mic 4:2 – for Zec 9:13 – against Mat 9:37 – The harvest Mat 13:38 – field Mat 22:9 – General Mat 24:14 – shall be Mat 24:31 – he Mat 26:13 – Wheresoever Mar 14:9 – Wheresoever Luk 3:6 – General Luk 9:2 – General Luk 10:2 – the Lord Luk 14:16 – bade Act 1:2 – given Act 4:12 – is there Act 8:12 – they believed Act 10:20 – and get Act 10:42 – he commanded Act 13:47 – so Act 16:13 – spake Act 16:32 – they Act 17:17 – daily Act 18:8 – hearing Rom 1:1 – the gospel Rom 3:29 – General Rom 8:22 – the Rom 10:8 – the word of faith Rom 10:14 – and how shall 1Co 15:3 – I delivered 2Co 5:18 – hath given Gal 3:27 – as many Eph 1:13 – the gospel Eph 3:9 – to 1Ti 2:4 – and Tit 1:3 – manifested Tit 2:11 – hath appeared Heb 2:3 – and was 1Pe 1:12 – that have Rev 5:9 – out
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
INTO ALL THE WORLD
And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Mar 16:15
If ever there was a nation to whom these words were plainly and directly addressed, that nation is England.
I. Reparation to native races.As a nation we owe some reparation to our heathen brethren (for they are our brothers), for the wars we have waged against them, for the curse of drink we have inflicted upon them, for the bad example which professing Christians have too often taught them. Certainly we do something in the way of sending to the heathen a better Gospel. A million and a half of money is annually spent on foreign missions; but this is not enough from the richest nation in the world, and looks small indeed when compared with the one hundred and thirty millions which are each year wasted on drink.
II. What we have received.Consider now what it is that has made England great. Is it not the honesty, truthfulness, purity, and righteousness generally that, with all their faults, have been the ruling principles of the conduct of Englishmen? and where did these come from except from Jesus Christ? He it was Who made them current coin; so that what Lord Macaulay once said in Parliament is literally true. The man, he said, who writes or speaks against Christianity is a traitor to the civilisation of the world.
III. The Lords command.Nothing can be more direct and plain than the words of the text, and there is no better test of the vitality of a Christian community than readiness to obey the command.
IV. The claims of our own kith and kin.We are bound not merely for the sake of the heathen, but for the sake of our own kith and kin, to follow with the teaching and ordinances of the Christian religion the stream of commerce and emigration that carries Englishmen to the ends of the world. Charity to the soul is the soul of charity is a saying especially true in reference to the prevention of that spiritual destitution into which our emigrants would fall if they were not helped, when they make their first settlements in distant countries, by the great missionary societies.
Rev. E. J. Hardy.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Chapter 31.
The Great Commission
“And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”-Mar 16:15.
The Commission: When Given.
I do not think that Christ uttered these words and laid this commission upon His disciples on the occasion of His first visit to them on the evening of Resurrection Day. It is true the verse follows immediately upon the verse which tells us of that particular appearance. But then these nine verses do not profess to be detailed history. As much as that can be inferred from the bare fact that the nine verses are made to cover ground that occupies whole chapters in the other evangels. The writer has compressed and welded a good many things together without strict regard to chronological order. He has picked out of the happenings of the forty days just enough to make it plain that Jesus had really risen, and that the missionary activity of the Church in the days in which he was writing was the result of the specific direction and plain command of the Lord Himself. So we must not conclude that, because the writer seems to attach the “Great Commission” to the first appearance, therefore it was given on that occasion. I do not think it was. I should argue for my view in the first place on general grounds.
-Not Immediately.
The disciples on that first evening were not prepared to receive a command like this. They were not in a fit spiritual condition to think of missionary work. On that first evening the disciples needed to have their own faith quickened. “He upbraided them,” I read above, “with their unbelief and hardness of heart.” It would have been of no use giving a command like this to unbelieving or halfhearted men. Before these humble men would venture out to preach to all the world, they themselves would have to be possessed of a triumphant and enthusiastic faith. And it was to the quickening of faith in the disciples themselves that Christ devoted Himself on the first Easter evening. “He showed them His hands and His side.” “Handle Me,” He said, “and see that it is I Myself.” And in addition he tried to bring home to them the realisation of their power. He breathed on them and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” Further than that our Lord did not go on that first Easter evening. His whole concern that night was with the disciples themselves. His one desire was to quicken faith in His own Resurrection, and as a result to beget within them a sense of power.
-But to Men Prepared.
It was later, when doubt had clean gone, and an enthusiastic faith and the courage born of it had taken its place, that our Lord spoke the great words of my text. It was to men convinced that Jesus was the Son of God, because of the Resurrection from the dead, and ready therefore to dare anything for Him, that Christ said, “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation.” When He said it, we are not told, but probably towards the end of His earthly sojourn. They would scarcely have been prepared to hear it sooner, for these disciples had much to learn before they were ready even to understand a command like this. There is a suggestive verse in the opening chapter of the Acts of the Apostles which is not without its bearing on this. Luke is summing up the events and conversations of the forty days, and says: “He shewed Himself alive after His passion by many proofs, appearing unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking the things concerning the Kingdom of God.” It is that last phrase which is the important and significant one. The recurring theme of conversation between the risen Master and His disciples was the Kingdom of God, the topic upon which they most needed instruction and guidance. For while they were chosen as the men through whom the Kingdom was to be established, they were in the meantime themselves ignorant of the true nature of the Kingdom. Nothing is more striking than the disciples’ perverse misunderstanding of the nature of the Kingdom which Christ had come to found. They were so entirely possessed by their Jewish prejudices that the true view of Christ’s Kingdom never really got a lodging in their minds.
-In Understanding of His Kingdom.
For example, take these three points. First of all, their conception of a Kingdom was that of a temporal Kingdom. Messiah’s Empire, as they thought of it, was a kind of counterpart of Caesar’s. In the second place, they thought this Kingdom was to be established by worldly weapons. They wanted to call down fire from heaven. They wanted to smite with the sword. Their idea was that nations were to be conquered by the sword, and so vast tracts were to be added to the Kingdom at a single stroke. And thirdly, their idea of the Kingdom was not universal but national. The Kingdom they thought of was a Jewish Kingdom. It represented the triumph of the Jew. And only the Jew and those who became Jews had part or lot in it. Now on each of these three points Christ’s Kingdom was diametrically opposed to their thoughts of it. The Kingdom of God which He had come to establish was a spiritual Kingdom; it was no earthly empire, it was the reign of God in the souls of men; it was to be established not by force but by love, and all men were to find a place in it, Jew and Gentile on equal terms.
The Command and the Message.
-A Message of Glad Tidings.
Notice the nature of the messages to be given: “Go ye into all the world,” He said, “and preach the Gospel to the whole creation.” What was this Gospel which they were to preach? It was the news about Himself; the story of His life and death and Resurrection. It is implied that in some way His life and death and Resurrection affected the whole world of men. The tragedy and triumph both took place in Jerusalem. But though they took place in Jerusalem, it was not Jerusalem and Palestine only that were concerned. What happened in Jerusalem in those days, had what the theologians call “a cosmic significance.” Distant lands were concerned, peoples and tribes that had never heard of Jesus were concerned; generations yet unborn were concerned. What happened to Him was of infinite moment to the universe. “Go,” He said, “and preach this Gospel of My dying and rising again-go into all the Kosmos and preach it to the whole creation.” Nor was it only that what happened to Him concerned the world, it is also implied that it would be good news to the world. It was an evangel they had to preach. The world’s happiness and hope were bound up with the knowledge of what had happened to Him. In some wonderful way the story of His living, dying, and rising again would bring light and joy and comfort and peace to the manifold peoples of the earth.
The Witness of the Message.
Now if Christ said this, it demolishes the theory of those who tell us that all the emphasis laid on the person of Christ, and the mighty place assigned to Him, is the result of a process of idealisation and deification that set in after His death. For you cannot reduce the person of Christ to the dimensions of a simple, lowly Galilean teacher without tearing the Gospels to rags and tatters. The impoverished Christ of so-called liberal theology is impossible; He never had any existence. There is no escape from the supernatural Christ, unless you deny His existence altogether. See what you have here-a Person Who thought so highly of Himself, that He thought Himself essential to the world, that He claimed the world as His own, that He declared Himself indispensable to the Hope and Happiness of the World. And who was this Person Who made these claims for Himself? Unless we are to be shut up to the answer that Christ was not even a good man, but was the most colossal egoist the world ever saw, we are bound to give the answer the Church has always given, “Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ.”
Christ’s Faith in the Disciples.
-Their Inexperience.
Observe, now, Christ’s faith in His disciples. “Go ye,” He said, “into all the Kosmos and preach the Gospel to the whole creation.” Christ committed His cause and Kingdom to the keeping of these disciples of His. He laid upon them the gigantic task of evangelising the world. It was a tremendous task to which He summoned them. For consider the kind of people they were-for this commission was not given to the Apostles only, it was given to the whole body of His disciples. They were men and women, most of them, who had never been out of Palestine. The only little bit of experience of evangelising work they had had, had been gained within the limits of Palestine and probably of Galilee. They knew no language save their own Aramaic dialect and possibly commercial Greek. And to these people, who were all perhaps without experience of the great world outside Palestine, Christ gave this commission, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation.” With their meagre, and as it seemed, hopelessly inadequate equipment, they were to set about the gigantic task of evangelising the world.
-Their Humble Station.
In the second place, not only were they untravelled men and women, but they were humble and socially insignificant into the bargain. There was not a wealthy man, or a man of rank or learning amongst them. “Not many wise, not many noble, not many mighty were called.” But God chose the weak things, and the base things, and the despised things of the world to do His work. When during the great war we wished to set our case before our American cousins we sent our very best men-Mr Balfour, the Archbishop of York, Sirach 6. A. Smith to do it. But Christ chose for His ambassadors fisher folk and publicans. To them He committed the task of preaching His Gospel. And His trust was not misplaced. These weak men went everywhere, they appeared before governors and kings, they turned the world upside down, they were able to do all things through Christ which strengthened them.
The Present Duty.
Now this was not a command laid upon the first disciples only, this is the permanent commission of the Church. Here is the great end for which she exists. There are various reasons which can be urged for zeal in missionary work. With our fathers, it was mainly concern for the future state of the unevangelised heathen. With the majority of people today it is perhaps pity for their present wretchedness and misery. The motive that inspired our fathers to such desperate earnestness in the cause of missions has lost much of its old power amongst us. But I am persuaded that the motive which we find in the thought of the present distress of the heathen is inadequate. Missions will limp and lag and fail if we depend upon that for our driving force. We must get back a mightier and more potent inspiration. And that mightier inspiration we get in the call and command of Christ. Here is the final and sufficient reason for missions. Christ commands them: “Go into all the world.” A Christian is just a man who obeys Christ. It is open to question whether a man who says he does not believe in missions and who refuses to help missions is a Christian at all.
-A Duty to all the World.
“Go ye into all the world!” You notice the uncompromising demand. The news about Christ was not to be confined to Palestine in those early days; the whole world had a right to hear it. The good news is not to be confined to Europe and the West in these latter days; every nook and corner of the world has a right to hear it. We have not to pick and choose. Some lands are difficult. Mohammedanism in Africa, Hinduism in India seem to oppose almost impenetrable barriers. But the Christian Church must not neglect India and North Africa because of their difficulty. Some lands are dangerous. But danger must not daunt us. It never has daunted the Church. The Gospel has entered into possession of nearly every land by a living way. Palestine by the blood of James and Stephen; Europe by the blood of Paul and Peter; the South Seas by the blood of John Williams; Africa by the blood of Bishop Hannington; New Guinea by the blood of James Chalmers. And still we must go in spite of danger. To the barbarians of Central Africa, and the untamed savages of New Guinea we must “go and preach.”
-And a Duty of All.
“Go ye into all the world.” This is the business not of some but of all. This was not a commission given to the Apostles but to the whole Church. We must all take our share. We must all bear a hand. It matters not how poor and insignificant we may be, we have all a part to play. By gifts and prayers, if not by personal service, we must participate in this task. The first business of the saved man is the salvation of souls, says Andrew Murray. What we need to realise is that this is our first and chief concern, the spread of the Kingdom. Behind the command there lies the faith, that the news about Christ is the news the wide world needs; that the story of Christ, living, dying, rising again is a Gospel to all who hear it. It is a faith which is confirmed by all the facts. When the Apostles first set out on their missionary journeys, it was a mighty venture of faith, it was, shall I say, an experiment. They undertook their missionary labours on the bare word of their Master. But in our case, we know by actual experience, that the news about Christ is a Gospel to all who hear it and receive it; that wherever it is proclaimed it carries with it joy and peace and freedom; that it emancipates and saves men when everything else has failed. There is a multitude which no man can number of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. The world needs Christ. He meets its wants. He can save it from its sin. And no one else can. “Give us your Christ,” said the people of Japan to Drummond as he sailed back to England. It is the appeal of the world. Shall it appeal in vain?
Fuente: The Gospel According to St. Mark: A Devotional Commentary
Christ’s Missionary Command as Seen in the Early Church
Mat 28:18-20; Mar 16:15-20; Luk 24:45-49
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
As the time came for the Lord to leave, and to return to His Father, He pressed upon the disciples the great yearning’s of His soul toward a world lost in sin; and then gave command that the Gospel should be preached to all the world. Let us, for a moment, as introductory to what shall follow, study the three records where this last command was given.
1. The command as recorded by Matthew: Here three things were stressed. First, they were to go and make disciples; secondly, they were to go and baptize; and thirdly, they were to go and preach.
(1) They were to go and make disciples. Their field was to be all nations. Their objective was to be the creation of followers of the Lord.
It is not enough for missionary endeavors to be centered in the moral uplift of the people. The Church is not commissioned to teach the nations of the world how to dress, or how to farm, or how to manufacture. The mission of the Church toward the unevangelized, is not to proclaim sanitation, and the isolation of diseases. The purpose of going into the world is primarily to preach Christ as the Saviour of sinners, and to call upon all men everywhere to repent, to believe, and to follow Him.
(2) They were to go and baptize. Baptism was to be not only a symbolical ordinance, but it was to be a consecrated ordinance. It was to be the signet of a new life. It was to be the attest of discipleship, the sign that the one discipled had been called out of the world to walk in newness of life.
(3) They were to go and teach. They were to teach all things which Christ had commanded them. They were not told to teach spelling, and geography, and grammar, and reading, and writing. They were to teach the things which pertained to the Kingdom of God. They were to teach the present ministry of Christ at the Father’s right hand, the place and power of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life; the Second Coming of Christ, and His glorious reign.
2. The command, as recorded in Mark. In Mark, the command emphasized the preaching of the Gospel to every creature. Not one individual in the wide world was to be left in ignorance of Christ, and of the salvation which is in Him. Until each generation preaches the Gospel to every individual living during their day, they have not fulfilled this commission.
3. The command as recorded in Luke. Luke emphasizes that which is to be preached. He wrote “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in [Christ’s] Name among all nations.” He said “Ye are witness of these things.” In the Book of Acts, just before Christ went up, He gave the geographical order in which His commission was to be proclaimed. He said, “Ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
We are glad that we are to spend the while, today, in observing how the early Church moved out in the fulfillment of this thrice-stated commission,-a commission restated in Act 1:8. We trust that the purpose of God toward a lost world, as they were put into operation in the first century, will inspire the saints of the twentieth century to a deeper realization of their own world-wide task.
“Telling sinners of the Saviour,
Let the light spread more and more.
Tell the whole wide world of Jesus,
Bear the news from shore to shore;
While we pray for other nations,
Send them help with willing hand;
Let us not forget the home-fields-
Jesus, for our native land!”
I. THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS AS SEEN AT PENTECOST (Act 2:5)
Was it not remarkable that, when the Holy Ghost came, there were at that time dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under Heaven. This fact alone is sufficient proof that the heart of God was reaching out toward men of every nation.
When the Holy Ghost came, and the saints were all filled with the Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, then, the multitude came together. The people were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language. Those who spoke were Galileans; those who heard were Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontius, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians.
You may wonder why we quote these varied nationalities by name. It is because their presence demonstrates to a conclusion, God’s great missionary purpose and desire. The people were in doubt, saying one to another, “What meaneth this?” We know one thing that it meant. It meant that God was reaching out His hand to a lost world. In one day and in one locality, God, through His disciples, was preaching the Gospel to every nation under Heaven.
From the groups who heard, about 3,000 were saved, and baptized. It is not difficult for anyone to grasp the far-reach of that day’s work. Did not many of these people return to their own land as messengers of Christ?
We remember how Peter addressed his first Epistle to the strangers scattered throughout Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. We feel certain that these “elect strangers” were, for a large part, those saved at Pentecost, or saved through the ministry of those of their nation, who were saved at Pentecost. Thank God for this first vision of missions in the early Church!
“Send the Light, oh, send it quickly
Far across the heaving main;
Speed the news of full salvation
Through a dear Redeemer’s Name.
Send the Light, where souls are dying
In their darkness, gloom and night;
Haste, oh, haste! the days are fleeting,
And the hours-how swift their flight!
Send the Light-the Lord commands it;
To His Holy Word attend:
Go ye forth and preach My Gospel;
Lo! I’m with you to the end.”
II. THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS AS SEEN IN THE GREAT PERSECUTION (Act 8:1)
God had commanded the Apostles that they should go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. Christ had told them they were to tarry in Jerusalem only until, but not after, the Holy Ghost came. He specified that their testimony was to pass from Jerusalem, on to Judea, and then to Samaria and then to the uttermost part of the earth. The early Church, at the first, failed God in this matter. They stayed in Jerusalem, They clung to their home base. The result was, that something startling had to happen.
As we see the great persecution against the Church at Jerusalem, we behold the saints scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. Thus, the second and the third reach of Christ’s command was about to be fulfilled.
We can see that the persecution itself was permitted on God’s part, in- order to press the saints out of Jerusalem and on into Judea and Samaria.
When the Lord Jesus was preaching and the multitudes were thronging His ministry, He left them abruptly, saying to the disciples, “I must preach the Kingdom of God to other cities also.”
“The other cities also,” should be the battle-cry of every believer touched with the live coal from God’s altar. The spirit of missions is the spirit of Christ. He who would circumscribe His testimony, or his gifts, or his prayers, to the immediate locality in which he dwells, has never caught the impact of missions, as set forth in the history of the early Church.
Paul wrote of not being content with another man’s line of things made ready to his hand. We join with him in saying, that, when our faith is increased, we shall be enlarged according to Paul’s rule, abundantly, to preach the Gospel in the regions beyond.
“Send abroad the Gospel heralds,
Let them take the blessed light
Into every land of darkness,
Piercing through the shades of night.
Yes, we’ll send the joyful message
Over mountain, over wave,
Telling everywhere of Jesus,
And His mighty power to save.”
III. THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS AS SEEN IN GOD’S CALL TO PHILIP (Act 8:26)
Philip was one of the seven. He went down into the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. Great joy was caused in that city by reason of Philip’s testimony, because they believed him and what he preached concerning the Kingdom of God, and the Name of Jesus Christ. Then were they baptized both men and women.
Philip went on his way preaching the Gospel in Samaria. Then it was that the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip saying, “Arise, and go toward the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.”
This was a strange command indeed. Why should Philip be called upon to leave so prosperous a ministry, and why should he go in a way which was desert? The answer is not difficult to find. There was a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority, under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was journeying along that desert road.
But why such a stir about one lone Ethiopian? Were not the many Samaritans, of greater value than one man from Africa? Assuredly.
We must understand that the one man took precedence over the many, because he was from a land afar, and because he was a key man, through whom many who were in darkness might see the light.
In the opening verses of Act 8:1-40, the Gospel was carried to the Samaritans. These Samaritans were the third group mentioned in Christ’s parting order of command. In the case of this eunuch of Ethiopia, the Lord was pressing beyond Jerusalem, beyond Judea, beyond Samaria, and on toward the uttermost part of the earth.
We need to awaken to a vision of the Lord’s passion toward the salvation of men. He wants us to press on until the last man has heard the Word.
If the call comes for us to go, let us, like Philip, hesitate not, but press our way quickly down the road, even though the way be desert.
“We have heard the joyful sound;
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Spread the tidings all around;
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Bear the news to every land,
Climb the steeps and cross the waves;
Onward!-’tis our Lord’s command:
Jesus saves! Jesus saves I
IV. THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS AS SEEN IN PETER’S VISION (Act 10:9-11; Act 10:17-19)
Cornelius who was a centurion of the Italian band was a devout man,-one that feared God with all his house. He gave alms and prayed always. In answer to his prayer God purposed to send him a messenger. Accordingly, Cornelius saw in a vision an angel of God who told him to send to Joppa and call for Peter, that he might tell him what he should do.
On the morrow, as his servants approached Joppa, Peter was in prayer upon the housetop. As Peter prayed, he became hungry, and fell into a trance. He saw Heaven opened, and a vessel descending before him, wherein were all manner of unclean beasts, and of creeping things and of fowls. Peter heard a Voice saying, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” This, Peter refused to do. However, the Voice said, “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.”
While Peter doubted as to the meaning of the vision, the men from Cornelius stood before the gate.
Do we grasp the full intent of this occurrence? Peter was prejudiced against the Gentiles. He was failing God in passing on from Jerusalem to the uttermost part of the earth. Therefore God found it necessary to teach Peter a lesson by the great sheet let down to the earth.
We wonder if it is necessary for God to do something very unusual in order to stir us up to obey His voice and to fulfill His desire toward the lost. If God has said “Go,” we have no right to hesitate. If God loves the world, we have no right to circumscribe our love to some chosen few.
Once more we have seen the hand of God in the days of the early Church, pressing the claims of missions upon His people, and revealing unto us the fact that God so loved the world.
“Ye Christian heralds, go proclaim
Salvation through Immanuel’s Name;
To distant climes the tidings bear,
And plant the Rose of Sharon there.
He’ll shield you with a wall of fire,
With flaming zeal your heart inspire;
Bid raging winds their fury cease,
And hush the tempest into peace.
And when our labors all are o’er,
Then we shall meet to part no more,
With all the ransomed hosts to fall,
And crown our Saviour Lord of all.”
V. THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS AS SEEN IN THE CONVERSION OF SAUL (Act 9:15)
There was a young man who was a Pharisee, of the tribe of Benjamin. Concerning the Law, this young man was blameless. Concerning religion, he was a thoroughly prepared zealot, having sat at the feet of one Gamaliel. He was intent, in his passion to persecute the Church.
With the letters of authority in his pocket, Saul journeyed toward Damascus, to bring the saints bound unto Jerusalem. As he journeyed, a light from Heaven shined round about him.
We know the story of Saul’s change of heart; of how the Lord cried to him, and of how he replied, full of trembling and astonishment. We know that, when Saul arose from the earth, he saw no man for he was blind. We know of his tarrying in Damascus for three days, without sight and without eating, or drinking. We know how God sent Ananias to Saul.
But what was the meaning of all of this? The meaning is set forth in our key verse,-“He is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My Name before the Gentiles and kings and the Children of Israel.”
Once more we see the hand of God reaching out toward the lost of the earth. When we link with this verse, the memory of Paul’s three great missionary journeys, and of his final testimony in Rome, we begin to see the outworking of the purpose of God.
God is still calling the choicest of Christian youths, to bear His Name to the faraway lands where men lie in heathen darkness. Even now we can hear Him saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?”
“The Son of God goes forth to war,
A kingly crown to gain;
His Blood-red banner streams afar,
Who follows in His train?
Who best can drink his cup of woe,
Triumphant over pain;
Who patient bears his cross below,
He follows in His train.
A noble army-men and boys,
The matron and the maid-
Around the Saviour’s throne rejoice,
In robes of light arrayed.
They climbed the steep ascent of Heaven
Through peril, toil, and pain;
O God, to us may grace be given
To follow in their train.”
VI. THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS AS SEEN IN THE ANTIOCH CONFERENCE (Act 13:1-3)
That must have been a blessed occasion at Antioch when such prophets and teachers as Barnabas, and Simeon, and Lucius, and Manaen, and Saul, were gathered together ministering to the Lord and tasting. We have no doubt but some marvelous revelations of truth were being given, and the saints were being edified.
However, as they ministered, the Holy Ghost said, “Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.”
You may cry, “It was too bad to break up so glorious a Bible conference!” Yet, without hesitancy, the saints laid their hands on these two men and sent them away. The remarkable statement, in Act 13:4, is most illuminating-“So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia.”
No one who reads this account can doubt the desire of God to preach the Gospel in the untraveled districts where men have not heard of Christ.
Out on their missionary tour they started, and the Lord was with them. There is a little verse in 2Co 13:14, which reads,-“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.” These words are commonly known as the “benediction,” and they are quoted, usually, at the close of each, stated church service. What do they mean? The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, is that grace, wherein He became poor that we might be made rich. The love of God, is that love which embraced the whole world, and gave His Son. The communion of the Holy Ghost, is the perfect one-ness with the Spirit in going forth with the message of truth and salvation to all men.
Can we hear the voice of God calling us to go far hence with the words of life? Perhaps, He wants us to have the grace of Christ and become impoverished that others may be rich. Perhaps, He wants us to have the love of God, that will give our sons for a lost world. Perhaps, He wants us to go forth ourselves sent by the Spirit.
Oh, help me tell the story of Christ my Lord and King;
For of His boundless mercy my soul delights to sing.
Oh, help me tell the story of Jesus’ boundless love,
Till, with the Church triumphant, I sing His praise above!
He brought me out of bondage, He paid my debt of sin;
The door of life He opened, that I might enter in.
He left His home in glory, He laid His scepter down,
And on the Cross He suffered, that I might wear a crown.
Be this my one endeavor, to glorify His name;
The story of Redemption to all the world proclaim.”
VII. THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS AS SEEN IN THE MACEDONIAN CALL (Act 16:6-9)
When they had gone throughout Phrygia, and the region of Galatia, Paul and Silas were forbidden of the Holy Spirit to go to Asia. Then they assayed to go into Bithynia; but the Spirit suffered them not.
The Holy Ghost knows where He wants the message carried, and by whom He wants it borne. In the work of missions we must never take the bit into our own teeth. When we have some personal desire or ambition, as to the location where we would like to give our testimony, we must rejoice if we are forbidden of the Holy Ghost, and suffered not to go.
After the Spirit had hindered Paul and Silas in their purpose, there appeared a vision to Paul in the night. “There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us.”
The disciples quickly gathered that the Lord had called them to preach the Gospel to the Macedonians, and so they took sail immediately and came by a straight course until at last they reached Philippi.
The story of Paul’s ministry in Philippi, and of the imprisonment of Paul and Silas, with the subsequent conversion of the jailor, is known to us all. Truly, they saw the hand of God guiding their footsteps.
That God wants the Gospel carried to the ends of the earth, we have plainly seen. Seven different illustrations of this fact, in the life of the early Church, have been placed before us today. Is this not the present hour desire of God? Is the Spirit of God not now thrusting out men and women into the ripened harvest fields? We have one last word to say. If God calls, do not hesitate to obey. Remember there are three things you can do:
1. You can go yourself.
2. You can let go-some one dear and precious to you.
3. You can help go-those who have a special call.
Shall we not, each one, ask God what He wants us to do?
“Can we, whose souls are lighted
With wisdom from on high,
Can we to men benighted
The Lamp of Life deny?
Salvation! O salvation!
The joyful sound proclaim,
Till each remotest nation
Has learned Messiah’s Name.”
AN ILLUSTRATION
WHOSE BUSINESS IS IT?
They were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. Some years ago I was speaking in the city of Minneapolis. I noticed in the audience a young lawyer. When the meeting was over I made my way to him and said: “Are you a Christian?” “Well, sir.” he said, “I consider myself a Christian.” I said, “Are you bringing other men to Christ?” He said, “No, I am not, that is not my business; that’s your business, I am not called to da that, I am called to practice law; you are called to preach the Gospel.” I said, “If you are called to be a Christian you are called to bring other men to Christ.” He said, “I don’t believe it.” I said, “Look here,” then I opened my Bible at Act 8:4, and asked him to read, and he read, “They that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.” “Oh, yes,” he said, “but these were the apostles.” I said, “Will you be kind enough to read the first verse of the chapter?” and he read, “They were all scattered abroad… except the apostles.” He had nothing more to say. What could he say?-From Dr. R. A. Torrey.
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
5
This and the following verse corresponds with Mat 28:19-20 It is commonly referred to as The Great Commission, although the New Testament does not so name it. World is from KOSMOS which has a wide range of meaning, but its usual sense is, “the inhabitants of the earth.” Preach is from KERUSSO which Thayer defines, “to be a herald; to officiate as a herald; to proclaim after the manner of a herald.” He then explains his definition, “always with a suggestion of formality, gravity, and an authority which must be listened to and obeyed.” The word may be used occasionally in a general sense, but its primary meaning is to tell something that is new. That is why an apostle had to be inspired because he would be expected to publish the Gospel for the first time, and to the people of various languages. Creature is from the same original word that is used in Col 1:23 where Paul says that the Gospel had then been preached to every creature which is under heaven. Whatever Jesus meant by every creature, Paul says it had been done, and hence the “great commission” was carried out by the apostles. That means that when a preacher says he is preaching under the “great commission” he is perverting the scripture.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
[To every creature.] To every creature; a manner of speech most common among the Jews: by which,
I. Are denoted all men. “The Wise men say, Let the mind of man always be mingled [or complacent] to the ‘creatures.’ ” The Gloss there is; “To do with every man according to complacency.” He makes the Holy Spirit to dwell upon the ‘creatures’; that is, upon men. “In every judge in the bench of three is required prudence, mercy, religion, hatred of money, love of truth, and love of the ‘creatures’ “: that is, the love of mankind.
II. But especially by that phrase the Gentiles are understood. “R. Jose saith, Woe to ‘the creatures,’ which see, and know not what they see; which stand, and know not upon what they stand; namely, upon what the earth stands,” etc. He understands the heathens especially, who were not instructed concerning the creation of things. The speech of all the ‘creatures’ (that is, of the heathens) “is only of earthly things, And all the prayers of the ‘creatures’ are for earthly things; ‘Lord, let the earth be fruitful, let the earth prosper.’ But all the prayers of Israelites are only for the holy place; ‘Lord, let the Temple be built,’ ” etc. Observe, how the creatures are opposed to Israelites.
And the parallel words of Matthew, Matthew_28, do sufficiently prove this to be the sense of the phrase, every creature; in this place: that which in Mark is, preach to every creature; in that place in Matthew is, disciple all nations; as those words also of St. Paul, Col 1:23; the gospel that was preached in all the creation.
In the same sense you must, of necessity, understand the same phrase, Rom 8:22. Where, if you take the whole passage concerning the Gentiles breathing after the evangelical liberty of the sons of God, you render the sense very easy, and very agreeable to the mind of the apostle, and to the signification of the word creature; or creation; when they who render it otherwise dash upon I know not what rough and knotty sense. Let me, although it is out of my road, thus paraphrase the whole place: —
Rom 8:19; “‘For the earnest expectation of the creature; or of the heathen world, waiteth for the revelation of the sons of God.’ For God had promised, and had very often pronounced by his prophets, that he would gather together, and adopt to himself, innumerable sons among the Gentiles. Therefore, the whole Gentile world doth now greedily expect the revelation and production of those sons.”
Rom 8:20. “For the creature; the whole heathen world, was subjected to the vanity of their mind (as Rom 1:21; became vain in their imaginations; and Eph 4:17; the Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind ), not willingly, but because of him that subjected it.”
Rom 8:21. “Under hope, because the creature also” (or that heathen world) “shall be freed from the service of” (sinful) “corruption” (which is in the world through lust, 2Pe 1:4), “into the (gospel) liberty of the sons of God”: from the service of Satan, of idols, and of lusts, into the liberty which the sons of God enjoy through the gospel.
Rom 8:22. “For we know, that the whole creature ” (or heathen world) “groaneth together, and travaileth, and, as it were, with a convex weight, boweth down unto this very time, to be born and brought forth.”
Rom 8:23. “Neither the Gentiles only, but we Jews also (however we belong to a nation envious of the heathen), to whom God hath granted the firstfruits of the Spirit, we sigh among ourselves for their sakes, waiting for the adoption, that is, the redemption of our mystical body, whereof the Gentiles make a very great part.”
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
WE ought to notice, firstly, in these verses, the parting commission which our Lord gives to His apostles. He is addressing them for the last time. He marks out their work till He comes again, in words of wide and deep significance, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
The Lord Jesus would have us know that all the world needs the Gospel. In every quarter of the globe man is the same, sinful, corrupt, and alienated from God. Civilized or uncivilized, in China, or in Africa, he is by nature everywhere the same, without knowledge, without holiness, without faith, and without love. Wherever we see a child of Adam, whatever be his color, we see one whose heart is wicked, and who needs the blood of Christ, the renewing of the Holy Ghost, and reconciliation with God.
The Lord Jesus would have us know that the salvation of the Gospel is to be offered freely to all mankind. The glad tidings that “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,” and that “Christ has died for the ungodly,” is to be proclaimed freely “to every creature.” We are not justified in making any exception in the proclamation. We have no warrant for limiting the offer to the elect. We come short of the fullness of Christ’s words, and take away from the breadth of His sayings, if we shrink from telling any one, “God is full of love to you, Christ is willing to save you.” “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” (Rev 22:17.)
Let us see in these words of Christ, the strongest argument in favor of missionary work, both at home and abroad. Remembering these words, let us be unwearied in trying to do good to the souls of all mankind. If we cannot go to the heathen in China and Hindostan, let us seek to enlighten the darkness which we shall easily find within reach of our own door. Let us labor on, unmoved by the sneers and taunts of those who disapprove missionary operations, and hold them up to scorn. We may well pity such people. They only show their ignorance, both of Scripture and of Christ’s will. They understand neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.
We ought to notice, secondly, in these verses, the terms which our Lord tells us should be offered to all who hear the Gospel. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” Every word in that sentence is of deep importance. Every expression in it deserves to be carefully weighed.
We are taught here the importance of baptism. It is an ordinance generally necessary to salvation, where it can be had. Not “he that believeth” simply, but “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” Thousands no doubt receive not the slightest benefit from their baptism. Thousands are washed in sacramental water, who are never washed in the blood of Christ. But it does not follow therefore that baptism is to be despised and neglected. It is an ordinance appointed by Christ Himself, and when used reverently, intelligently, and prayerfully, is doubtless accompanied by a special blessing. The baptismal water itself conveys no grace. We must look far beyond the mere outward element to Him who commanded it to be used. But the public confession of Christ, which is implied in the use of that water, is a sacramental act, which our Master Himself has commanded; and when the ordinance is rightly used, we may confidently believe that He seals it by His blessing.
We are taught here, furthermore, the absolute necessity of faith in Christ to salvation. This is the one thing needful. “He that believeth not” is the man that shall be lost for evermore. He may have been baptized, and made a member of the visible church. He may be a regular communicant at the Lord’s Table. He may even believe intellectually all the leading articles of the creed. But all shall profit him nothing if he lacks saving faith in Christ. Have we this faith? This is the great question that concerns us all. Except we feel our sins, and feeling them flee to Christ by faith, and lay hold on Him, we shall find at length we had better never have been born.
We are taught here, furthermore, the certainty of God’s judgments on those who die unbelieving. “He that believeth not shall be damned.” How awful the words sound! How fearful the thought that they came from the lips of Him who said, “My words shall not pass away.” Let no man deceive us with vain words. There is an eternal hell for all who will persist in their wickedness, and depart out of this world without faith in Christ. The greater the mercy offered to us in the Gospel, the greater will be the guilt of those who obstinately refuse to believe. “Oh! that men were wise. Oh! that they would consider their latter end.” (Deu 32:29.) He that died upon the cross, has given us plain warning that there is a hell, and that unbelievers shall be damned. Let us take heed that His warning is not given to us in vain!
We ought to notice, lastly, in these verses, the gracious promises of special help which our Lord holds out in His parting words to His apostles. He knew well the enormous difficulties of the work which He had just commissioned them to do. He knew the mighty battle they would have to fight with heathenism, the world, and the devil. He therefore cheers them by telling them that miracles shall help forward their work. “Signs shall follow them that believe. In my name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they shall drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” The fulfillment of most of these promises is to be found in the Acts of the Apostles.
The age of miracles no doubt is long passed. They were never meant to continue beyond the first establishment of the Church. It is only when plants are first planted, that they need daily watering and support. The whole analogy of God’s dealings with His church, forbids us to expect that miracles would always continue. In fact, miracles would cease to be miracles, if they happened regularly without cessation or intermission. It is well to remember this. The remembrance may save us much perplexity.
But though the age of physical miracles is past, we may take comfort in the thought that the church of Christ shall never want Christ’s special aid in its seasons of special need. The great Head in heaven will never forsake His believing members. His eye is continually upon them. He will always time His help wisely, and come to their support in the day that He is wanted. “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.” (Isa 59:19.)
Finally, let us never forget, that Christ’s believing Church in the world is of itself a standing miracle. The conversion and perseverance in grace of every member of that Church, is a sign and wonder, as great as the raising of Lazarus from the dead. The renewal of every saint is as great a marvel as the casting out of a devil, or the healing of a sick man, or the speaking with a new tongue. Let us thank God for this and take courage. The age of spiritual miracles is not yet past. Happy are they who have learned this by experience, and can say, “I was dead, but am alive again: I was blind, but I see.”
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
Mar 16:15. And he said unto them. There is no reference to the appearances in Galilee. The more important points of the revelations made on various occasions up to the time of the Ascension are summed up. These words may, however, have been uttered on one occasion. Comp. Mat 28:19; but here the style is brief, energetic, as usual in Marks narrative.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Here our Saviour gives commission to his disciples to congregate and gather a Christian church out of all nations, to go forth and preach the gospel to every creature; that is, to all reasonable creatures that are capable of it; not to the Jews only, but to the Gentiles also, without any distinction of country, age, or sex whatsoever.
Learn hence, That the apostles and first planters of the gospel had a commission from Christ to go amongst the Pagan Gentiles, without limitation or distinction, to instruct them in the saving mysteries of the gospel.
The second branch of their commission was, to baptize.
Where observe, The encouraging promise made by Christ, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; that is, he that receiveth and embraceth the gospel preached by you, and thereupon becomes a proselyte and disciple of Christ, and receives baptism, the seal of the new covenant, shall for all his former sins receive pardon, and upon his perseverance obtain eternal life; but he that stands out obstinately and impenitently shall certainly be damned.
The two damning sins under the gospel, are infidelity and hypocrisy; not receiving Christ for their Lord and Saviour by some, or doing this feignedly by others.
Happy are they in whom the preaching of the gospel produceth such a faith as is the parent and principle of obedience; He that so believeth and is baptized, shall be saved.
Accordingly, some paraphrase the words thus: “He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; that is, he shall, by virtue of the faith in baptism, be put into a state of salvation; so that if they continue in that faith, and do not wilfully recede from his baptismal covenant, he shall actually be saved.”
Note farther, That they who hence conclude that infants are not capable of baptism, because they cannot believe, must also hence conclude, that they cannot be saved, because they cannot believe; for faith is more expressly required to salvation, than to baptism.
Note lastly, that though it be said, He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; it is not said, He that is not baptized, shall be damned: because it is not the want, but the contempt of baptism that damns, otherwise infants might be damned for their parents neglect.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Mar 16:15-16. Go ye into all the world To all countries under heaven; and preach the gospel to every creature That is, to all mankind, to every human being, whether Jew or Gentile, for our Lord speaks without any limitation or restriction whatever. On this Bengelius remarks, If all men, of all places and ages, have not heard the gospel, the successors of the first preachers, or those whose duty it was to hear it, have not answered Gods design herein, but have made void his counsel. He that believeth The gospel which you preach, with his heart unto righteousness; he that receives your testimony with a faith productive of love to God and man, and of obedience to the divine will; and who, in token of that faith, is baptized, and continues till death to maintain a temper and conduct suitable to that engagement, shall be saved That is, he shall, by virtue of that faith and baptism, be put into a state of salvation: he shall be saved from the guilt and power of his sins into the favour and image of God; his person shall be justified, and his nature sanctified; and he shall be entitled to, and made meet for, eternal salvation; of which also he shall be made a partaker, if he continue in the faith he has received, and do not wilfully recede from his baptismal covenant. He that believeth not With such a faith as is above described, whether baptized or unbaptized; shall be damned , shall be condemned, namely, at the day of final judgment, and in consequence thereof shall perish eternally.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
CXLII.
THE GREAT COMMISSION GIVEN.
(Time and place same as last section.)
aMATT. XXVIII. 18-20; bMARK XVI. 15-18; cLUKE XXIV. 46, 47.
a18 And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. b15 And he said unto them, Go ye atherefore, binto all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. aand make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: 20 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: b16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned. cThus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day; 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. [The verses from Luke are taken from a later conversation, which will be handled in our Psa 8:6, 1Co 15:27, 1Co 15:28, magnifies instead of detracting from their wonderful import, for he deems its necessary to state that the Father himself is not subject to the Son. Surely in connection with this marvelous celestial power, his dominion over out tiny earth would not need to be mentioned if it were not that we, its inhabitants, are very limited in our conception of things, and require exceedingly plain statements. The command calls for the Christianizing of all nations. If we realized better that authority with which Christ prefaces his commission, the conquest of the nations in his name would seem to us a small matter indeed, and we should set about it expecting to witness its speedy accomplishment. The structure of the sentence in the original Greek shows that it is the disciples and not the nations who are to be baptized; according to the commission, therefore, one must be made a disciple before he can be baptized. Baptism brings us into divine relation to God. Being a part of the process of adoption, it is called a birth ( Joh 3:5). The baptized Christian bears the name into which he is baptized ( Rom 2:24, Jam 2:7). Luke sums up the whole commission by recording the words of Christ, wherein he states that he suffered that it might be preached to all nations that if men would repent, God could now forgive ( Rom 3:26). From Luke’s record we also learn that the preaching of these glad tidings was to begin at Jerusalem.] b17 And these signs shall accompany them that believe: in my name shall they cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; 18 they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. [The Book of Acts gives examples of each one of these except the fourth, and though we have no record of a disciple escaping the effects of drinking poison, [763] there is little doubt that in the many persecutions such cases did occur.] aand lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. [This is a promise not of bare companionship, but of full sympathy and support ( Isa 43:2, Exo 33:15, Jos 1:5). The duration of this promise shows that it is intended for all disciples.]
[FFG 762-764]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 15
And he said unto them; on another occasion, just before his ascension.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
THE RESURRECTION TO BE PROCLAIMED
15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
The more familiar version of this passage is in Mat 28:19 ff “Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: 20 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
The first missions conference that I attended was in Bible College. One of the missionary speakers, Ron Blue, later of Dallas Seminary, shared from the Matthew text and made the clear point that the passage related to “as you are going” make disciples etc. Not sometime in the future, but as you are going.
This relates to the real truth that we are all to be involved in this process, not just those that “go” somewhere as missionaries. As we go to work, as we go shopping, and as we go visiting, we are to be about this process.
It is about all of the above, not just the winning of souls, it is the winning, the training and teaching/training of the new believers.
There is much discussion as to whether the final verses of Mark really belong there. It seems that Mark ends at 16.8 since there are multiple endings to the book from later manuscripts.
Many observe that all of what is contained in the seemingly added ending is Biblical so it should not be thrown out as long as it is understood that it is probably added. Stress should be given to the Biblical passages that it is based on rather than teaching from these added verses.
The Net Bible notes have some information on this. They mention that some manuscripts have this section marked as not being the original Mark, or spurious. Further they mention “All of this evidence strongly suggests that as time went on scribes added the longer ending, either for the richness of its material or because of the abruptness of the ending at Mar 16:8. (Indeed, thestrange variety of dissimilar endings attests to the probability that early copyists had a copy of Mark that ended at Mar 16:8, and they filled out the text with what seemed to be an appropriate conclusion. All of the witnesses for alternative endings to Mar 16:9-20 thus indirectly confirm the Gospel as ending at Mar 16:8.) Because of such problems regarding the authenticity of these alternative endings, Mar 16:8 is usually regarded as the last verse of the Gospel of Mark. There are three possible explanations for Mark ending Mar 16:8; (1) The author intentionally ended the Gospel here in an open-ended fashion; (2) the Gospel was never finished; or (3) the last leaf of the MS was lost prior to copying. This first explanation is the most likely due to several factors, including (a) the probability that the Gospel was originally written on a scroll rather than a Codex (only on a Codex would the last leaf get lost prior to copying); (b) the unlikelihood of the MS not being completed; and (c) the literary power of ending the Gospel so abruptly that the readers are now drawn into the story itself.”
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
16:15 {3} And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to {d} every creature.
(3) The apostles are appointed, and their office is limited to them, which is to preach that which they heard from him, and to minister the sacraments which Christ has instituted, having in addition to this the power to do miracles.
(d) Not to the Jews only, nor in Judea only, but to all men and everywhere: and so must all the apostles do.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The giving of the Great Commission on this occasion seems to have preceded the giving of it that Matthew recorded (Mat 28:19-20). The account in the second Gospel stresses the universal scope of the disciples’ responsibility (cf. Mar 14:9). "All" in "all the world" is an especially strong form of the Greek word for "all," namely, hapanta. Every part of the world needs the gospel.