To All the World

Well, let's take our Bibles this morning and open them to Matthew chapter 28.

! Our text for this morning will not be Luke. We'll get back to Luke eventually.! And we're so close to finishing it. I really debated whether I would take my passage out of Luke because what we're going to be looking at this morning is a somewhat of a parallel passage to what we have in Luke 24.

But I decided not to because then we'd have to skip the part about the road to Emmaus, the men that Jesus met there, and we'll get to that when we get back to Luke.

But this morning I want us to be in Matthew chapter 28. And our text is verses 16 through 20, a very famous passage, a very well-known passage, certainly in terms of our responsibility, our duty, our commission as a church to bring the gospel to the world.

And so if you would find that text, Matthew 28, verses 16 through 20, I'll read it in just a moment. It's about the Great Commission, isn't it?

The Great Commission, and it is helpful for us and healthy for us as believers and as a church to revisit that Great Commission from time to time because we kind of lose sight of it.

Not just lose sight of it in our minds and thinking, but even in, especially in our participation. I need this. You need this. To be reconnected, reacquainted with the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As it is recorded for us in a number of places. For example, Mark chapter 16 and verse 15 where Jesus said, Go into all the world and preach the gospel, the good news to every creature.

As it is also recorded for us in Luke chapter 24 and verse 47 where Jesus said, Repentance and remission or forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.

And as it is recorded in Luke's second volume, which is Acts of course. In Acts chapter 1 verse 8, Jesus said, You shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

But of course I skipped one. And it's possibly the most well-known recorded account of Jesus' commission to his church. And it happens, of course, to be our passage for this morning. And so if you have found it, Matthew chapter 28, let's read verses 16 through to the end of the chapter.

Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them, previously appointed for them to meet.

When they saw him, they worshipped him. But some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, and here's the familiar part of course, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you.

And lo, I am with you always, always, even to the end of the age. Amen. Amen is in black. So that means Matthew added that to the end of this great commission, added it to the end of his account of the gospel.

Amen. Now, I think you would agree with me when I say that some things in the Bible are hard to understand. Would you agree with that?

I have a PhD, and there's a whole lot of the Bible I have a hard time understanding. I have to dig hard and study hard, and I hope you do the same. There's a lot of the Bible, a lot of it that is difficult to understand, and we have to dig hard and work hard to get the meaning.

But it is comforting to realize that at least some things in the Bible are pretty simple. I mean, they really are. Now, I don't mean simple to accept, even though simple things are sometimes difficult for us to accept and buy into, but the meaning, at least, is very straightforward, very simple.

Some things in the Bible are presented to us in a way that is unambiguous. Like, for example, when the Bible uses short words, very short and simple words, like the word all.

I don't know if you noticed it, but we find that word a number of times in our passage for this morning. Very simple word. All. And listen, I can understand that word.

Can't you? I mean, all. I mean, what's hard about that? There's nothing ambiguous about the word all. I've said to my boys on a number of occasions, just which part of all do you not understand?

I mean, we've all said that, haven't we, in some way or another. That's a very simple word. Three little letters. A-L-L, at least in our English text. And all just simply means all.

And in the Bible, for example, when the Bible says in Romans 3.23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, that's not hard to understand, is it?

I mean, it's pretty straightforward. All means all. I can understand that. All means me. And also, when the Bible says in Romans 8.28, another very famous passage, one that we really love, probably one of those most memorized passages in the Bible, all things work together for the good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

We can understand that, can't we? There's nothing difficult about that. It's very clear. All means all. All means everything. All means all things. God uses all things in my life to bring about ultimate good for me.

And He does that. And it's a great promise. Or how about this one? Maybe not as familiar to you, but it's a great one. 2 Corinthians 9.8. Now listen to this.

Now that's pretty redundant, isn't it?

All, all, all. Very simple. Nothing ambiguous about it. All means all. And so, with that simple word in our minds, again, you may have noticed that the word appears in our passage for this morning.

In fact, it appears in one form or another, well, three times identically, and then another one in a similar form. It appears four times. The word or concept of all appears four times in this passage.

And here is the value of that. Each time the word all appears, we gain a better understanding of the subject of this passage, which is what?

The Great Commission. We gain a better understanding, a more full understanding of the Great Commission. And so looking at the passage, verse 16 opens this way.

It says, now we're coming to the end of the Gospel account of Matthew. We're coming to the close of it. And it's kind of the punctuation for the whole thing. It really is where the Gospel that was very isolated, very particular for Judea and Galilee, where it is now going to become a universal appeal to all people around the world.

And so it opens this way. Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee. This is how it begins. Now where were they before this? They were in Jerusalem, in Judea.

Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem of Judea. Jesus was buried in a garden tomb very close to where He was crucified. And Jesus, of course, was raised from the dead on the third day after His death upon that cross.

That's in Jerusalem, in Judea. And in verse 5 of this chapter in Matthew that we're looking at, and it's also given to us in a number of several of the other accounts.

The Bible tells us that the women came to the tomb, remember, and they found the tomb empty and they also met there with a couple of angels. And the angels said to them on that Sunday morning, early that Sunday morning, do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.

He is not here, for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. That is, come see for yourself. He's not here.

And then go quickly. This is what the angel said to the women. Go quickly and tell His disciples, all of them, that He is risen from the dead and indeed He is going before you into Galilee.

There you will see Him. And so that's eventually what happened. In Galilee. They went from Jerusalem of Judea to some place in Galilee.

And Jesus said, or the Bible says in verse 16, then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. Now, I won't get into all of the details concerning how to kind of put this chronologically, the timing of all of this.

When this happened in relation to the resurrection, we can look at the various accounts of the resurrection. We know that several things happen after Jesus' resurrection, even before they went to Galilee.

But considering how long it would take to travel from Judea to Galilee, we're probably talking about 20 days after the resurrection. It's 20 days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It's before the ascension, but it's 20 days after the resurrection. And we also do not know for sure the location. In fact, we don't really know anything about the location other than it is in Galilee.

Galilee, some mountain. They're in Galilee. The Bible doesn't tell us where. In Galilee, just some mountain or the word might just simply mean hill country.

And I rather kind of think that it was the same location where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount in Galilee early on in his ministry. Brought them back to that place. And somewhere along the way, this was prearranged.

We don't have any account of that as well. We don't know when Jesus told them to meet him at this certain place. So in this passage in Matthew, we're not given the exact place. We're not even told about when Jesus told them about this thing, how he prearranged this.

We don't know any of these things. But we do know that afterward, after this event, after they met with Jesus, they traveled back to Jerusalem. The disciples did.

The apostles, the 11 apostles, traveled back to Jerusalem, made that week-long journey back to Jerusalem to another mountain. And we do know the name of it.

The Mount of Olives. Where Jesus met with them again and reiterated his commission to them, to his church. And then he was taken up into a cloud out of their sight.

Ascended back to heaven. And so, it was on a hillside in Galilee that Jesus first gave his commission to his church.

And by the way, he did not just give this commission to the 11 apostles. I know Matthew just mentions the 11, but there were others there. In fact, there were quite a few others present when Jesus gave this commission.

And we know that from what Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 15, and verse 6, where he is giving kind of the list of those people who saw Jesus alive after his resurrection.

And then it ends with, he was seen by over 500 brethren at one time. That was here. In this place, on a hillside, somewhere there in Galilee.

Galilee. And these 500 or more people, which would have included the 11 apostles and the women who followed Jesus everywhere and ministered to him and many, many others, over 500 of them, they were most likely Jesus' true followers.

Now, Jesus had quite a following when he was in his ministry stage, the preaching stage of his ministry before his death. Not all of them were true disciples.

They were following him and interested in him, but they were not yet believers. But I think these 500 or more were true followers, even though it tells us here in verse 17 of our text that some still struggled with doubts.

You say, well, those probably weren't real believers. Well, even some of the apostles struggled with doubts at this point. See, this is prior to the Pentecost. This is prior to the Holy Spirit coming down upon them and dramatically changing them.

There were still some who doubted, but they came here, according to the passage to our text in Matthew, they came and they worshipped. As soon as they saw Jesus, they worshipped him. These were true believers, true followers.

They worshipped him even in spite of some doubts that they had. But here's the important thing. What did he tell them? What did Jesus tell them in this last meeting with kind of the nucleus of what would become the church in Jerusalem that would eventually spread out and now all the way around the world?

What did he tell them? Well, that's what we want to see this morning. As we focus, really, focus on his rather redundant use of the word all.

So let's look at it. First of all, Jesus says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

That's the first all in the Great Commission. And it reveals to us, number one, the force behind the Great Commission.

When Jesus said in verse 18, all authority has been given to me, he's talking about his power. All power has been given to me. See, with God, power and authority, they're synonymous.

The word authority here comes from the Greek word exousia, and its basic meaning is power to act as one pleases. And with Jesus, this power to act as he pleases is unlimited.

Unlimited. It is absolute. There are no boundaries, no limits to it. He has all power to act just as he pleases. And so that's why I say with God, power and authority are the same thing, aren't they?

He has the authority, he has the power to do exactly as he pleases. He doesn't have to ask anybody. He's not governed by any limitation, no law, no rule, except those laws exist within his person.

He can do exactly as he pleases, and Jesus said, all that power has been given to me. Now, you add to that what Jesus said in Acts 1.8.

So you can't just look at the great commission given in Matthew 28 without also considering the other time, the last time that he gave this commission in Acts 1.8.

When you put this together, Acts 1.8 says, you shall receive what? Power. When the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

Now, that's a reference to the Pentecost, the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit will come upon the apostles and the church will be birthed officially at that point.

And so he says, when you receive that power, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you shall be witnesses to me. Alright, now, you put those together and you see, it pleases Jesus.

It pleases God that we should be his witnesses in the world. That's his method. That's his way. That's what he's chosen to do. It pleases him to reach the world of sinners through you and me, through his church.

And God does as he pleases. He has the power. Jesus has the power to do exactly as he pleases. He has the power, power then, that is, it pleases him to give us power, a certain measure of power, to be his witnesses to the world.

Now, in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, that word power is a different word. The word power in Acts chapter 1, verse 8 is from the Greek word dunamis.

You probably have heard this before. Preachers like to point this out. Dunamis, from which we get our word dynamite. Now, I don't particularly like that analogy because dynamite is a destructive power and the power that Jesus gives us is not a destructive power.

How about if we use this analogy, the word dynamic? That also comes from this Greek word dunamis. The dynamic of God.

He has given that to us so the exousia of Jesus that he can do just as he pleases. He has the power to do as he pleases. The exousia of Jesus is the dunamis, the dynamic that is operating in the life of the believer today to be his witnesses to the world.

The witnesses of Jesus. By the way, to die as his witness if need be. It's not something any of us are really prepared to do. But that's part of it.

In fact, it's interesting. We took Daniel and Deborah, as I said, we took them to Voice of the Martyrs. And Daniel, we all got to sit down with some of the leadership there in Voice of the Martyrs.

It was a tremendous experience for Daniel as they asked him about ministry in China and the availability of Bibles and so forth and how they can help and so forth. It's a tremendous experience.

But before we went in to Voice of the Martyrs and if you've ever been there, you know they have that huge wall of martyrs, Christian martyrs, you know dating back all the way to the apostles.

And Daniel was very interested in that and of course we showed him some Chinese names. There were some Chinese Christians who were on that wall who were martyred for their faith.

And Daniel asked a question, I don't remember exactly what the question was because that part of it doesn't really matter, but he was trying to learn, he's been trying to learn English. And so he asked the question in English and he asked a question about these quote, witnesses.

That's the word he used in English. His Chinese word for martyr apparently means witness.

Now you might think that's a little bit strange, but it's not strange when you consider that the Greek word translated witnesses in Acts 1.8 is the word martus from which we get our word martyr.

Now not all witnesses of Christ are martyrs, become martyrs, okay? Right? Of course. But many have. And that's always the possibility that you might die for your faith.

And I don't think we're going to see that anytime soon in America. travel to another country, maybe you might have the opportunity. But we don't have to worry about that. We're not going out choosing to be martyrs in the sense of dying for our faith.

But to be a witness is to be if need be in our understanding of the word be a martyr. Actually, physically die for your faith in Jesus Christ.

I'm not trying to scare anybody away from mission work. Okay? But this is what it means. And so here's the point. God, through the Lord Jesus Christ, provides power.

He can do as He pleases and He provides power to each and every one of His followers, His disciples, you and me. All power. He has all power and He gives His power, first of all, to give us courage.

give us courage to be witnesses for Him. You think about Peter and what a dramatic change that took place in his life from prior to Pentecost to after Pentecost.

I mean, prior to that, Peter is denying that he even knows Jesus three times. And after Pentecost, after the Holy Spirit came upon him, after he was endued with power from on high, he preached boldly without fear.

Think about that. And also, not only to give courage, but also to give conviction to the heart of the sinner. To bring conviction, that's the power of the Holy Spirit through our witness, bringing conviction to the heart of the sinner, and not only that, but to bring conversion.

The power to convert the sinner, bring conversion to those who will believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all that happened, of course, modeled for us on the day of Pentecost.

Peter gets up and begins to preach a mighty sermon, a fiery sermon, and it's the gospel of Jesus Christ, proclaiming the Lord Jesus Christ whom you crucified, he said.

And suddenly, many were convicted for their sin, and ultimately, many were saved, some 3,000 in one day. This is the force behind the great commission, all authority, all power.

The second all in the passage starts in verse 19, look at verse 19, go therefore, that is, I mean, we can just paraphrase this, since I have all power to do as I please, and since I've given you power to go, then go.

And do what? Make disciples of all the nations. There's the second all in the text. All nations.

We need to understand this. And it reveals to us, number two then, the field, the field of the great commission, and what is our mission field?

It's all the world. All the nations. Our mission field is the world. Did you know that right now, today, there are 196 nations in the world?

196 of them. Did you know there were that many? 196 nations. I'm talking about in the sense of geopolitical entities, nations, governments, so forth.

196 of them. There are today 6,500 spoken languages in the world. And by the way, the most spoken language today is, what would you say?

It's not English, it's Mandarin Chinese. Can you believe that? The most spoken language. 1.2 billion people in the world today speak Mandarin Chinese.

I thought that was rather interesting. people but let's consider some statistics that are more relevant to what Jesus is talking about here. There are in the world today 11,291 people groups.

11,291 491, excuse me, I got the number wrong. I give or take a few hundred, okay? 11,491 people groups.

You say, well, what is a people group? Well, let me give you the definition, the official definition, and I get this from our international mission board. A people group is the largest group of people through which the gospel can flow and expand without before it encounters a significant barrier of understanding or acceptance.

That is language or ethnicity or culture or religion. The gospel can move through an identifiable group of people. It can move until it hits a boundary of language or culture or so forth.

And that's a people group. They can be very small, quite large. And there are 11,000, more than 11,000 of those in our world today. 11,491 people groups.

And that number changes all the time. Now, when Jesus talks about all the nations, he is not talking about geopolitical entities, of which there are 196 of them.

For example, since we've been talking about China and learning about China, China is one nation, isn't it? China is a nation, has a government, and so forth.

It's one nation, one of 196 of them. But did you know that China has 550 distinct people groups?

And each one of them has to be reached with the gospel. 550 of them. So Jesus, he's talking about people groups here.

How do we know that? Well, the word nations in the passage does not refer to governments. The word nations comes from the Greek word ethnos.

Ethnos. Does that sound like something? How about the word ethnic? Ethnic. That's the word here. Ethnos.

And so Jesus is, what's he doing? He's commissioning his church to go and make disciples of all people groups in the world.

People groups that are defined by geography, defined by ethnicity, defined by color, defined by language.

By the way, you notice I didn't say race. There's only one race in the world. It's the race of Adam. Okay? Different colors, one race.

But they're different colors. And a color forms a certain boundary that identifies a people group. Some are identified by culture. In fact, most of them are identified by a number of things, but especially culture.

So the gospel can move into that group of people, but when it reaches the end of those who are part of that culture, it comes against a boundary. That's an identical people.

even religion identifies a people group within a geopolitical nation. That's what Jesus is talking about.

And in the world, there are 11,491 of them. Distinct people groups. And listen, further than that, there are currently, I know these are a lot of numbers, but 6,793 distinct people groups where evangelical Christians comprise less than 2% of the total population.

Almost 7,000 people groups where Christianity barely exists. Less than 2% of the total population.

And let me go a step further. This is my last statistic, okay? There are currently 3,084 distinct people groups that have no gospel witness by any evangelical Christian ministry.

None. Period. We've got a lot of work still to do. And what can we do about that? I mean, we're just one church and we're not a very big church either, are we?

No. We're not. What can we do? Well, for starters, we can take the Great Commission literally. That is to take literally what Jesus says here.

We can acknowledge that Jesus means exactly what he says. You say, well, everybody knows that. Do they? I mean, every church knows that he means what he says here.

But do they? We can take it literally. And when he says to go to all the nations, folks, we are to realize that he means exactly that.

All nations. Now, that's the beginning place. Now, of course, we can't go. Our church can't go to all the nations, but we can go as far as we can and to as many of them as we can, as God leads us.

But we have to begin with an acknowledgement that Jesus, when he says all, he means all. And we want to be a part of that in whatever way we can. Which leads to the second thing we can do.

And that is we can acknowledge that he is talking to us, our church, in particular.

But in the broad scheme, he's talking to every church, every individual, church. He's speaking to each and every individual church. But we need to realize he's speaking to us.

He's talking to us. Later on, just before Jesus was caught up into the cloud, ascended back to heaven, he said to his church, you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and and, not or, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

And he's very methodical in this. He starts where they are and goes out and out and out to the whole world. And it's and, not or. we have to acknowledge that.

Reality, he's speaking to us. Folks, listen to my heart. I've heard from some who said, Pastor Bartlesville, that's our mission field.

I'm not trying to offend anybody. He said, it's right here. Our mission field is right here. And my answer to that is absolutely.

You're absolutely right. it is. And then I would say, every single Sunday, every single Sunday when we meet, after we meet, we send a mission team to Bartlesville.

Do it, wherever you live. Did you know that's what we do every Sunday? We send out a mission team. We talk about mission teams going to China Ukraine, Colorado Springs, wherever.

But every Sunday we send out a mission team to this community. And that's every one of us. Everyone. You ever thought of yourself, of it in those terms, that you're part of the mission team?

It goes out every week. Every single week. church evangelism is not just another program of the church.

That's part of our problem, I think, as Southern Baptists. Somewhere in the past, we made evangelism a program. And so some would sign up to be a part of the program, and then that would be the evangelism of the church.

evangelism is not a program. Evangelism is who we're supposed to be. Every day.

We go out from here, and our lifestyle is one that models the life of Christ. We go out from here, and what we say, what we say is in line with the Word of God.

and do is in line with His Word. And every opportunity we have to share the reason for our hope, we share the reason for our hope.

And every opportunity we have to proclaim the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, and invite people to trust Him, that's what we're supposed to be doing.

I think we all need to be reminded of it. We're part of a mission team. And it's not part of the budget. We don't budget evangelism in that sense.

It's not part of our missions fund either. And it's not some calendared event. We need to acknowledge that Jesus has talked to us personally when He gives this commission.

He's talking about all the world and He's giving that to us to do. And He can do as He pleases. And if that's what He chooses to do, and that's how He wants to win the world, then that's exactly where it's going to be.

And our decision is whether to be a part of it or not. there's something else we can do, of course, and that is, and this all leads to this, we can give of our resources, help reach every people group in the world.

And we do that, don't we? give it through our cooperative program, Southern Baptist Convention, supports the International Mission Board, North American Mission Board, give through special offerings, Lottie Moon, Annie Armstrong, International Missions, North American Missions, we give through our Gospel Debt to the World Missions Fund.

We can give of our money. Yes, we need to do that. Because we can't go everywhere, but we can support those who can go to these places. But we can also go.

I know that's a scary thing for many of God's people. That's one thing, you know, to go next door. For some, it's incomprehensible to go to China, someplace like that.

But we can't go. And Jesus did say, after all, go, therefore. You can't get around that. And that's a two-letter word, not a three-letter word.

That's even more simple. Go, therefore. And who will go? Who will go? Again, I'm hoping to organize a team this year, perhaps early next year, to go to Lviv, Ukraine.

will you go? Rosa Flores, our own Rosa, is going to go to Nicaragua this year, July 23rd to 31.

Dr. Fessler and others on the medical missions trip. And we're going to help her. And I understand there's room for others to go.

we'll help you. That's why we give to this gospel to support and help. Will you go?

I don't know about that. I don't like to really go further than Tulsa. So you may not even like to get out of Bartlesville.

I don't know. I admit to you it is something certainly to pray about. You want to go as God leads you.

But just remember God said go. Therefore go. So the force behind the Great Commission all authority all God's authority is behind all his power is behind men.

That's quite a force to reckon. The field of Great Commission is all the nations. All the nations. And third Jesus said in verse 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.

And so number three the focus of for our Great Commission the focus of it. the focus ultimately is discipleship.

It's discipleship. We're to make disciples of all nations. That's what Jesus said in verse 19. That's primarily evangelism. Though it does go beyond that.

That's a reference to sharing the gospel and encouraging people to trust Christ as Lord and Savior. Evangelism. We're make disciples of all nations.

It's really the only imperative only command in the entire commission. Make disciples. That's evangelism. And then we are to teach them to observe all things that Jesus commanded.

To observe what he taught. His word. Verse 20. That's discipleship. Discipleship. See, sharing the gospel with someone and seeing that person trust Christ, repent and trust Christ, publicly confessing him as Lord and Savior and following through with believers, baptism, that's only the beginning of it.

It's only the front end of it. Because beyond that Jesus has commanded us to then teach them all things that Jesus has commanded. That's Sunday school and Awana and the gathering for the youth on Wednesday night.

That's Wednesday night Bible study down here. That's Fat Boys. In case you don't know what Fat Boys is, that's Faithful, Available, and Teachable. That's where the guys get together and eat a lot of food, but then they also get taught the word of God.

And at the same time, the women are meeting for the women's book study. That's all part of discipleship. Vacation Bible school, and we could go on and on with the list. It's much of what we do as a church inside these four walls.

discipleship. And if you're involved in that, if you're teaching or leading in that, you know that you're part of the Great Commission. I mean, the focus is discipleship.

The maturity of the believer, the spiritual growth of the believer. And many of you are part of that. Very important. And we need to do more of that.

Though I'm not announcing anything this morning, there will be a new focus coming for discipleship. Talking about small group discipleship, small groups that meet together and study together.

We'll be talking more about that when it's time to, very soon. So, what are we talking about here? What about the focus, the ultimate focus of all of this is discipleship.

And then one more this morning, I'll be finished. The favor, God's favor, that comes with the Great Commission. Now, this is really a wonderful part of this.

Because along with the Great Commission comes the favor of God. in terms of His abiding presence in our lives. And that brings us to the fourth all.

Jesus said in verse 20, I am with you always. Always. Always. I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

That is, the end of the world. I am with you. Now, that is great encouragement. And then Matthew ends with a big amen. And closes the book of Matthew.

Amen. I am with you always. In fact, in the King James, the New King James, it says, Lo, I am with you always.

That is why some people say, I can't get on a plane, because it is only lo that Jesus is with us. But that is not what it means. I should have said that.

I want to show you something interesting as I close. When you put both Acts 1.8 and Matthew 28, verse 20 together, this is what you have.

to the ends of the world until the end of the world.

That is really great. We can think about it. To the ends of the world. That is our commission. All the nations. To the very ends of the world. No one excluded.

No place denied. And how long are we going to do that? Until the end of the world. Until the end of the world.

And the best part is, and Jesus is with us every step of the way. Amen.