So, keep your Bibles open. Go to Matthew 28. Matthew 28, which we just read from obviously,
and verse number 19. Matthew 28 verse 19. Jesus said, Go ye therefore and teach all nations. The
title for the sermon tonight is, Teach All Nations. Is it our job to teach all nations?
Well, yeah, that's what Jesus says, right? Teach all nations. And, you know, we have the pleasure
of living in the nation of Australia. It's a rich country. It's a nice country. We have a lot of
freedom. We can meet freely in church. We have the freedom of knocking doors. We have the freedom of
purchasing Bibles. We live in a great nation. But, you know, when Jesus Christ was thinking of
Australia, in His time, it wasn't much of a nation back then. When He talks about going into the
uttermost part of the world, obviously in the mind of Christ, that would have included Australia. So,
here we are 2,000 years later, and we're living in the uttermost part of the earth, as far as,
you know, the location of where Jesus Christ spoke these words. But let's start off with verse number
one. Matthew 28 verse one. It says, and of course, sorry, picking up from the last chapter, we saw
Christ being crucified, right? We saw Him buried. His body was taken, and now we're up to the chapter
of the resurrection. Now, when it comes to Christianity, the resurrection is the most
important event in the Bible. Without the resurrection, the Bible says, the Apostle Paul
says, that our faith is in vain, okay? We can have this nice book with the Bible. We can have these
great words of Jesus, but if He never rose from the dead, our faith is in vain. If He rose, if He
did not rise from the dead, we are yet in our sins, and we would still need to find a way of salvation.
So the resurrection is critical to the sacrifice and the completion of the gospel message that
comes from Jesus Christ. It also plays a role in our resurrection. If not for the resurrection
of Christ, then we would not surely have no resurrection of ourselves. The fact that God
promises us a physical resurrection, He promises us to give us new bodies without sin, incorruptible,
immortal bodies, is through the power of the resurrection of Christ, and we're going to be
given the same resurrected bodies that Christ had of Himself. So what an honor that we get given these
immortal, incorruptible, sinless bodies at the rapture, at the resurrection. So the resurrection
of Christ is so critical. It's so important. Look at verse number 1, Matthew 28, verse 1.
In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, of course the
first day of the week is the Sunday, alright? Came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see
the Sepulchre. Now the Bible here talks about the other Mary. There were some other Marys that were
there at the time of his burial and that, you know, the other Mary could be Mary, the mother
of Jesus Christ, but there was also another Mary, the mother of James, that gets brought up in some
of the other gospels. I'm not sure which Mary has been referred to here, but I don't have time to go
through all this, but it wasn't just two Marys that went to the Sepulchre this morning. In fact,
it was quite a number of ladies that had organized themselves, that had went, that had gone out. You'll
be able to see this if you compare some of the other gospels, you read some of the other stories
of how they went to the Sepulchre, you'll notice there was a bunch of ladies actually that went to
see Jesus Christ or the body of Christ. And anyway, verse number 2. And behold, there was a great
earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rode back the stone from
the door and sat upon it. Now I don't know if you guys have ever seen the stones of the tombs,
in Israel, in Jerusalem. If you go and Google, you can look this up. Look up the stone of these
tombs or the stone of Christ's tomb. They'll probably point you to something which is probably
not Christ the stone that covered Christ's tomb, but it gives you a picture of how massive these
pieces of rock were, how heavy they were. This stone was not, it was immovable by one man. It
wasn't just one man that was able to roll this stone. You needed a company of men and you
probably needed some type of device, you know, some type of equipment in order to roll that
stone. I mean, it would be pointless of having this stone as a door of a tomb that anyone can
just roll easily. Of course, that's not the point. The whole point behind the stone is to seal that
tomb, okay, to seal it, seal it. And this angel was able to come down in of himself and rolls that
stone away, okay, rolls it away. It just shows you the power, the strength of this one heavenly
angel. But one thing I also want you to notice about the Bible here, he doesn't roll the stone
away for Christ to come out of the tomb. Christ had already risen. Christ was no longer there.
The whole purpose of rolling the stone away was that it would be a visible, a public thing that
anybody could come to this tomb and see, hey, the body of Christ is gone. He's no longer here,
no longer buried. He's been raised from the dead. That's the point of rolling away the stone. Not
to release Jesus. He's already gone, all right. He's already gone. He's got that new resurrected
body. And if you're familiar with the stories after his resurrection, he's able to basically go
through walls. He's able to sort of appear and disappear as he wishes in that new body that he
has, all right. Look at verse number three about the angel. It says the angel's or his countenance,
the angel's countenance, was like lightning and his raiment white as snow. So, you know,
he shone very brightly. And then verse number four, it says, and for fear of him, the keepers
did shake and became as dead men. Now, let's go back to the previous chapter very quickly. Who
are these keepers that they're talking about? Matthew chapter 27, verse 65, near the end of
the chapter there. Matthew 27, verse 65. Do you remember the story of the crucifixion of Christ,
that the chief rulers were concerned that Jesus said he was going to rise again three days later?
And so they asked Pilate, can you set a watch? Can you send some soldiers to make sure that the
disciples of Christ cannot overpower these hardened soldiers, right? And then there in
verse number 65, Pilate said unto them, ye have a watch, go your way and make it as sure as you
can, okay? As sure as you can. As humanely possible, make sure that snow never rolls
away from that tomb. Make sure nobody can ever come and take away the body of Christ. And see,
this is the power of God. Regardless of how much men are trying to prevent Christ from being raised
from the dead, through his power, he was able to be raised from the dead. In verse number 66 it
says, so they went and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone and setting a watch. You see,
not only was the stone covering the tomb, but it somehow had been sealed. I don't know what
extra sealing they did to make sure that you could not be rolled away, and they set a watch.
They set many soldiers there throughout the day, throughout the night, to make sure nobody could
take the body of Christ. And if you look back in Matthew 28, verse number 4, when these keepers,
or these that were watching, saw the angel, it says the fear of him, the keepers did shake,
and became as dead men. Now they didn't die since they became like, or you know, as dead men there,
right? So my understanding of this is they probably fainted. It was just too much. The
earthquake, this angel, you know, stone being rolled away, and they just faint at the sight
of this great thing, right? Verse number 5, and the angel answered and said unto the women,
fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen,
as he said, come and see the place where the Lord lay. See, so he invites the women, come into the
tomb, see where the body was, okay? Be a witness of the resurrection of Christ, that his body had
left. That's really important, okay? You see, when Christ rose from the dead, it was a physical
resurrection. Physical resurrection, right? That old body had been resurrected into the new,
glorified, resurrected body of Christ. And this is the message that we preach when we go out,
we knock doors, we give the gospel. The message we preach is a physical death of Christ, a physical
burial in the tomb, and a physical resurrection, all right? You have some people, such as the
Jehovah Witnesses, that they claim, they do say that Jesus was resurrected, but they don't believe
in a bodily or physical resurrection. They believe it was just a spiritual thing, right? Somehow the
ghost of Jesus has left the body. They don't believe in a physical resurrection. They don't
believe in the resurrection. The faith of the Jehovah Witnesses is in vain. It's in vain for
many reasons, but that's surely one main reason why their religion is in vain. Their faith is in
vain. They don't believe in the physical bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. What's another faith
that believes in Christ, or they claim to believe in Christ, but they don't believe in his
resurrection? Islam. Islam. They don't even believe that Jesus was crucified. They say that the body
that was crucified was replaced, that God allowed another man to be crucified. I mean, how blasphemous
is this? You know, that was the goal of Christ, to come and die on the cross, and Islam, the Muslims
teach that, no, that wasn't Christ that died. It was some other man, and of course, if they don't
believe in the death of Christ, they're not going to believe in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Anyway, verse number seven, please. Look what he says. Once they've seen that Christ is not in the
tomb, he says to them, to the ladies, and go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the
dead, all right? Now, I want to just point this out again. Who's this group of disciples that came
to the tomb? It was the ladies. It was the women, okay? And look, you know, I don't apologize for
this, but the Bible makes it very clear that only those that are in leadership for a church, you're
only allowed to be in leadership within a church if you're a man, okay? You can only take the office
of a pastor or of a deacon if you're a man. You can only teach in a church environment if you are
a man, okay? This is very clearly taught to us in the Bible, but you know one thing that ladies can
do? You know one thing you can do, ladies, if you want to actually be involved in teaching? You can
take the story of the burial and resurrection of Christ. You can get out there and preach the
gospel to everybody, okay? Teach all nations, the Bible says. You're able to be used by God to get
the gospel message out. How important is that? You've got the ability. You've got the command.
Even these angels recognize these women. Hey, go and tell the men. Go and tell the other disciples
of the resurrection of Christ. For those of you that just came in, we're up to Matthew 28, if you
want to turn there. Matthew 28 and verse number 7. And go quickly and tell his disciples that he's
risen from the dead, and behold he goes before you into Galilee. There shall you see him, lo I
have told you. So again, I don't know if you remember this, you know, I will have looked at
shortly, but they commanded to go into Galilee. Jesus Christ is going to make an appearance to
his disciples near Galilee, in a mountain near Galilee, which we're going to look at a bit later
on in this chapter. But this is the first time it gets brought up to the ladies here. And verse
number 8. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy, and did run
to bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold Jesus met them. So as
these ladies were on their way to tell the other men, the disciples, right, Jesus meets them
halfway saying, all hail. And they came and held him by the feet and worshipped him. Okay, they
see that they're rewarded, right, for being in obedience to the command of the angel, go out
there, and on their way Jesus meets them, you know, and they go, they worship him at his feet.
And what I like about these verses here, in verse number 8 and 9, it reminds me of church. Okay,
it reminds me of the attitude, of the behavior we ought to have when we come to the house of God.
Now, let me, I'm sure I've covered this before, and I want you to understand that there are going
to come times in your life when you do not want to be in church. Okay, maybe even tonight you
didn't want to be in church. There's a part of you that's tired, right? There's a part of you
that says, well, I've got to wake up early tomorrow morning, you know, the Lord understands,
surely the Lord understands if I miss out on church. There's always that part of you, right?
The flesh is willing, right? I mean, the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, Jesus Christ
said. We've covered that before. But I want you to remember, look, just the mindset that these
ladies had and the disciples had is so important. Look at verse number 8 again. It says, and they
departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy. You see, coming to the house of God,
coming to church ought to be, there ought to be a level of fear, a fear of God, okay? A reverence
to God, you know, an honouring to God, and say, look, Lord, I want to be in obedience to you. You
died for my sins, you rose again from the dead, Lord. This is something that I can do for you,
out of fear, you know, out of the terror of the Lord even. You know, I don't want to be chastised
by God. I want to make sure the Lord is happy with me. I want to be a faithful child. I want to
be a faithful son or a faithful daughter of God. I've got a certain amount of fear, and it's
healthy to have a fear of God. Not to have a fear of men, but a fear of God. It's healthy, and that's
going to drive you to be in church. It's going to drive you to read your Bible, to pray, and to serve
the Lord through work, but not just fear. It's as they came with great joy, right? Great joy. And I
want you to get into the habit of saying, hey, church is a place of great joy. I want to be in
the house of the Lord. You know, it pleases the new man in me, right? Not the flesh. The flesh is
lazy. The flesh is sinful, but the new man in me, you know, the new creature, the born against
spirit within me, it wants to be in the house of the Lord. I have received great joy when I'm in
the house of the Lord. And I'm going to quickly read to you from Psalm 122, verse 1. I'll just
read it to you. Psalm 122, verse 1. It says, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the
house of the Lord. Reverend, were you glad when they said unto you, it's time for church? It's time
for the house of the Lord. How did you react to that news? You know, were you glad? Did you have
great joy to say, I'm going to be in the house of the Lord? I mean, I'm not asking you, I'm not saying
raise your hands or anything like that, but hey, but if some of you, praise God, all right, but if some of you
can say to me, you know what? I didn't have great joy. I was a bit lazy. I was, you know, I didn't really
want to be here tonight. Well, that's a bit of a self-examination. You know, there's a part of you
that's lacking. There's a part of you that's not loving the Lord the way that you should, okay? You
ought to say, no, church is a place where I can have great joy. And then it says there, and they
did run to bring his disciples word. So I hope none of you guys sped to church, but you know, get here
quickly. You want to try to be on time. Verse number nine, and they went to tell his disciples, behold
Jesus met them saying all hail, and they came and held him by the feet and worshiped him. The house
of the Lord coming to church is an opportunity, a place for you to come and worship him, to come and
worship Jesus Christ. Hey, we worship him through song, right? We sing these hymns, you know, focus on
the words that have been said. Learn the doctrines that are in these amazing hymns. You know, set your
heart on that. You know, we sang, I gave my life for thee, what hast thou given for me? As you're singing
this, you know, start thinking about, hey, what have I given to my Lord God? What is it that I've given
to Jesus Christ? He's paid for it all. He's given me salvation, full and free. What is it that I can
do for the Lord? As you sing these hymns, they ought to challenge you. It ought to cause you to worship,
to humble yourself before the Lord, serving the brethren. You serve one another. We serve the
brothers and the sisters in this church by serving the church. We are by extension serving Jesus
Christ, okay? So in order to worship God, the house of the Lord is the best place. We can worship him
by song, by thanksgiving, our prayers. We can worship him by just serving the brethren, okay? And
it's a great opportunity we have to be in the house of the Lord. And verse number 10, please,
verse number 10. Matthew 28, verse 10. Then said Jesus unto them, be not afraid. Go tell my brethren
that they go into Galilee and there shall they see me. So there's the Galilee being brought up
again, right? By the angel, first of all. And now Jesus Christ is reminding the ladies, tell them to
go to Galilee. That's where I'm going to show myself to them, all right? Now just very quickly,
I just want to show you this. Go to Matthew 26. So just a couple of chapters before that. So we've
already seen this mention of Galilee twice, right? In this chapter. And back to Matthew 26, verse 32.
Matthew 26, verse 32. Jesus Christ prior to his crucifixion. Well, let's start off with verse
number 31 there. Matthew 26, 31. Then saved Jesus unto them, all ye shall be offended because of me
this night. For it is written, I will smite the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be
scattered abroad. And I've talked on that already, how when Christ was arrested, his disciples
panicked. You know, they had fear and they were scattered. They did not stand up for Christ. But
in verse number 32, it says this. But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.
Okay, so this has been the plan of Christ before his crucifixion, before his arrest even.
He's saying, look, you're going to be scattered, but don't worry. In Galilee, I'm going to strengthen
you, okay? You're going to make it there. And as we get to Matthew 28, we've now already seen this. The
angels saying, hey, go to Galilee. Jesus Christ coming to the ladies. Remind them, go to Galilee.
Okay, this is the purpose of this chapter. And verse number 11. But before we go there,
I just want you guys to turn to 1 Corinthians 15, please. 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15.
Verse 1. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 1. So this appearance in Galilee is very, very important.
After Christ was resurrected from the dead, do you guys know how long he was walking the earth
until he ascended up to heaven? Anybody know? 40 days. 40 days. Yeah, 40 days, okay? And during
those 40 days, he would appear to his disciples in different places, okay? But the key one, the
key appearance was always Galilee. And we'll have a look at this here in Matthew, in, sorry, 1
Corinthians 15, verse 1. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 1. Of course, Paul speaking to the Corinthian
church. There was some within the Corinthian church that were denied the resurrection, okay?
And so he addresses them here. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you
the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand. I want to
notice a few things there. We ought to preach the gospel, right? We ought to preach the gospel. We
saw this which I preached unto you. So Paul says, look, I preached the gospel unto you. It's
important for us as a church to be preaching the gospel. Now I believe most of you are saved. It's
going to be pointless for me to just preach the gospel to you guys as saved. That's why we go out,
we knock doors of the community, to those that have not heard the gospel preached, okay? But
it's not just the gospel to be preached. It says which also ye have received, okay? We need to
remember the gospel that we've received. So if somebody tries to come one day into our church
and come with another gospel, with a works gospel, some other, some false gospel, we're aware, no,
this is the gospel we received. We won't take that. And it says, and wherein ye stand. We ought
to stand upon the gospel of Christ as well, okay? When you understand the gospel, when you believe
the gospel, that's what saves you. That's the foundation of your faith of Jesus Christ. And
then you can go forth, you can build on that foundation, you can stand on that foundation,
and do great things for God. But you've got some other gospel, you're not going to be able to do
great things for God. Verse number two, by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory that what
I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain, for I delivered unto you first. So what is
this gospel? Of that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures. Now I just want to stop there for a minute. Verse number three says, Paul says,
for I delivered unto you, that being the gospel, first of all that which I also received. You know,
some people claim that the gospel we teach was Paul's gospel. And they say, well that's a
different gospel than the gospel of Jesus Christ. How ridiculous! Paul says, no, I received this
gospel. Who did he receive it from? From Jesus Christ. It was Jesus Christ that appeared unto
him. Remember, he got blinded by his appearance. It's Jesus Christ which commissioned him. It's
Jesus Christ which ordained him an apostle to the Gentiles. Okay, so the gospel he received is the
same gospel that was preached by Jesus Christ. He didn't come up with some other gospel, right, for
the churches. And then he says, how that Christ, look at this, how that Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day
according to the scriptures. This is the gospel, guys. This is the gospel, right? The death,
burial, and resurrection of Christ. Now look at this. And that he was seen of Cephas. Who's Cephas?
That's another name given to Simon Peter. Okay, Cephas. Then of the twelve. Okay, and I'm not,
we're not going to look at all these appearances, but I just want you to see there was a chronology
of appearances to his disciples at different points. To the twelve there basically was when,
I remember that time when Thomas wasn't there, Dalton Thomas wasn't there, and that's when he
appeared there to the twelve. And then verse number six. After that, now this is the one to do
with Galilee. After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once. This is what Galilee
is important. All the brethren, right, all the disciples, all those that aren't afraid, that
aren't hiding, the ones that went to Galilee were about five hundred, and these are the ones that
saw Jesus Christ at once. And then it says, of whom the greater part remain unto this day, but
some have fallen asleep. So at the time of writing this epistle, most of those that saw Christ,
in Galilee there, were still alive, but some had died, some had fallen asleep. Verse number seven,
after that he was seen of James, then of all the apostles, and last of all he was seen of me also,
as of one born out of due time. All right, so Paul explains this resurrection is important,
because we have eyewitnesses of this. We have eyewitnesses of this account. Now you might say,
well I haven't seen the physical resurrection of Christ, but for those of you that are saved,
do you have any doubt that he rose again from the dead? Do you have any doubt that he died for
your sins and was buried three days and three nights and rose again? I have no doubts. Okay,
now I did not see him with my eyes, but I heard the scriptures, I see what the Bible says,
faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, right? I mean to me, I wasn't dead 2,000
years ago, but I know that Christ rose from the dead better than my own birth, all right? Better
than my own birth. I don't remember my birth, I don't think any of you guys, but I know that
Christ rose from the dead, because we have the power of the Bible, we have the eyewitnesses that
saw, then they proclaimed this truth, okay? And they taught the gospel to others, and those others
taught the gospel, preached the gospel to others, and down the centuries the gospel has been
preached from people to people. Eventually it got to you, and you're saved, you know, thanks to these
first witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now I'm going to read to you very quickly
from John 20 29. This is about doubting Thomas. Remember Thomas, he did not believe that Christ
rose from the dead, and then Jesus does him a favor and appears to him later on when he's amongst
the 12 or amongst, he was 11 really, because Judas Iscariot had committed suicide. But he says
this to Thomas, he says, Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou has seen me, thou hast believed.
Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. Jesus says, hey, there's a blessing, a
special blessing on us. You might say, man, I wish I was there 2,000 years ago to see Christ. Well,
there's a greater blessing for those of us that have seen him through faith and have believed on
him through faith. So, you know, count yourself blessed. Jesus Christ says you're blessed if you
believe in his resurrection. Back to Matthew 28 verse 11, please. Matthew 28 verse 11. Now when
they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city. So the watch, remember those are
soldiers that were overseen, but, you know, the grave, the tomb, they wouldn't take the body. So
some of the watch came into the city and showed unto the chief priests all the things that were
done. I mean, I can't believe this story, right? The soldiers go to the chief priests and say,
look, an angel appeared, there was this massive earthquake, the stone was rolled away, these
ladies came up, came there, and we fainted, we lost it, and the body of Christ is gone, all right? I
mean, these are hardened soldiers, all right? Are they going to get overpowered by a bunch of women?
Of course not, right? They come to the chief rulers and explain what happened. Verse number 12,
and when they were assembled with the elders and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the
soldiers. They gave a bribe, in other words, saying, say ye, his disciples came by night and
stole him away while we slept. Hey, lie about it. Say that the disciples, the men came, not the women,
say the men came at night and took away the body while we slept. What's the point of having a watch?
They're meant to be watching, right? How can they fall asleep? I mean, it's embarrassing for them.
Verse number 14, and if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him and secure you. Okay,
so if the governor, that being Pilate, hears about this, that you failed, we'll protect you,
because I would assume, you know, by failing at their job, they would face death, probably. You
know, so he says, look, we'll protect you, we'll cover you, make sure you're secure and, you know,
you won't be cured by Pilate. Verse number 15, so they took the money and did as they were taught,
and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day. Now, there are many people
that know the Bible story. There are many preachers that know of the resurrection of Christ. Okay,
but instead of preaching the gospel, you know, instead of caring about the souls of men,
they get into the ministry, they get into the work for money. Okay, they get into the work for filthy
Luca. This is a great example of soldiers that know the truth. They know the truth. Hey, they
know this is a resurrected Jesus Christ. This is their opportunity to be saved. Instead, they take
the money. They hide the truth of God's Word. They prevent others from knowing the true resurrection
of Christ. They say, no, it's false. It didn't happen. Again, Jehovah's Witnesses, Islam, they
know what the Bible says. They know that the Bible says that Christ was resurrected from the dead.
Look, our nation out there knows that Christ was resurrected from the dead. You go and knock
someone's door. They don't know how to be saved, but you ask them, hey, what happened to Jesus
Christ after He died? Oh, He rose again. He came back to life. Look, our unbelieving, unsaved
nation knows about Christ. Okay, but there are some that take the money and pervert the gospel.
They prevent people from coming into the kingdom of God. These watchmen, these soldiers are a great
example of that. Verse number 15, sorry, verse number 16. Then the eleven disciples went away
into Galilee. So remember, go into Galilee. So they go into Galilee. Into a mountain where Jesus
had appointed them, and when they saw Him, they worshipped Him, but some doubted. So this is the,
this is the time when the five hundred, or about five hundred people came into Galilee to see Jesus
Christ. And this is where we get one of the, one of the great stories about the Great Commission,
where Jesus Christ commands His disciples, now that you've seen me, I'm going, I'm going to heaven,
alright, but I'm going to leave you a work to do. It's known as the Great Commission. Now in verse
number 17, I don't know why it says, but some doubted. I'm not sure what that means. I'm not
sure if that means there were some there that had doubted, and now they saw Christ, and that's been
revealed to them, or if it's saying that after He appeared to them, they still doubted. I'm not sure.
If you guys have some thoughts around that, let me know. But verse number 18, verse number 18,
and Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Now I've once had a Muslim man say to me, who apparently got saved, apparently got baptized in
one of my old churches, but then he's like rejected Jesus Christ, rejected the God, I don't believe he
ever got saved by the way, but he claims he did, and he says, well Jesus never said that He was
God Almighty, and the Muslims do this a lot, right? They say, hey show me, this is a red-letter Bible,
show me the red letters where Jesus said certain words, show me what Jesus said that I am God,
you know, and if you show me that, then I'll believe. Well look at this, and I took this man
to this passage here in verse number 18. If you've got a red-letter Bible, you'll notice that these
are the words of Christ. Jesus said, say in verse number 18, all power is given unto me in heaven
and in earth, and I said to this Muslim man, hey who has all power in heaven and in earth? And he
said, God. I said, well who said these words? Jesus, it's red-letter, right? I read the black
and red letters, all right, but it's a red-letter, but he still rejected it, you know, he wasn't like,
he told me it's God, yeah, and then he's like, well it was Jesus, and he couldn't, he would not accept
it, okay? But anyway, so we make it very clear, Jesus Christ here is proclaiming that he is deity,
that he is God, and then in verse number 19, because he has all power, okay, this is what he
does to empower us in verse number 19, go ye therefore and teach all nations. What are we to
teach all nations? The gospel. Keep your finger there and go to Mark 16 very quickly, Mark 16.
So this is known as the Great Commission. Now the Great Commission is found in all four Gospels,
it's also found in the book of Acts, okay, and every, and it's not that he gave it in one place,
he gave the Great Commission after his resurrection in different places, okay? A lot of people make
the mistake in Matthew 28 to think this is the Mount of Olives, because if you remember in the
Mount of Olives, Jesus Christ says very similar things, and then he ascends to heaven in a cloud.
This is not this occasion, this is not when Christ ascends into heaven, this is in Galilee,
in a mountain near Galilee, this is not the Mount of Olives, okay? Just keep that in mind.
Anyway, Mark 16 verse 14, this is after the resurrection of Christ as well. Afterward it
says he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and
hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. And he said
unto them, look at this, go you into all the world, which is basically, you know, teach all
nations, but what? And preach the gospel to every creature, right? This is what he means by teach
all nations. It's not teach them mathematics, teach them grammar, it's not teach them how to
be a disciple necessarily, these first words are about preaching the gospel, and the command that
we saw in in Matthew 28 says, go ye therefore, all right? Go to the unbelievers. Now some churches
have done the opposite. They've told the unbelieving world, go to church. No, no, no, no, no. It's not
unbelieving world, go to church, it's disciples of Christ, believers of Christ, go into the world,
and preach the gospel. And so some churches have said, no, no, no, we're going to bring the
unbelievers into the world. It's like, well, the unbelievers aren't interested in Bible preaching.
The unbelievers aren't interested in singing these old-fashioned hymns. So what do the churches do?
Well, let's get the rock band here then, you know? Well, they don't want to hear one hour preaching,
let's make it a 15-minute feel-good message, you know? Let's just make people feel good about
themselves. Tell them that God loves them, right? Just tell them that God loves them. And let's say
put the smoke machines, and let's entertain the masses. That's how we're going to get the
unbelieving world into the church. That's not what God says. He says, go, you therefore, get out of
here and preach the gospel. Listen, we're never going to tailor this church here, New Life Baptist
Church, for the unbelieving world. Now look, are unbelievers welcome to church? Absolutely. But as
soon as church service is over, I hope one of you guys or myself will go up to that person and give
them the gospel, okay? We're not trying to get the unbelieving world into church. Church is for the
believers. Church is to teach people doctrine, to grow in the Lord, and then as you're encouraged,
as you're motivated, as you're edified, you're to go out into your world. Go out into this nation
and preach the gospel. Mark 16, you guys are still there. Mark 16, 15, preach the gospel to every
creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned.
Very quickly, some people mess up this verse here. They say, look, baptism is part of salvation.
They'll say, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. So you must be baptized in order
to be saved. But the truth is, if I believe, and I preach a sermon, which I'm doing right now, I'm
saved as well. If you believe, and you sit in the congregation of the church, you're saved as well.
If you believe the gospel, and you drive your car home from work, you're saved as well. In other
words, the second part of that can be anything, okay? It's true that someone that believes and
is baptized is saved, but you have to be baptized to be saved. No, because the second part of that
verse says, but he that believeth not shall be damned. So what is it that damns a man to hell?
He that believeth not. So what saves you from hell? He that believes, all right? And of course,
them that believe ought to be baptized. You know, in obedience to the command of God,
that first step of obedience ought to be baptism. And let me say, if you've not been baptized,
if you've not been scripturally baptized as a saved person, let me encourage you, this is part
of the Great Commission. It's not just preach the gospel, but once you get people saved, get them
baptized. I encourage you, if you need to get baptized, please speak to me. We can organize
that at any time. Back to Matthew 28 please. Matthew 28 verse 19. Back to Matthew 28 verse 19.
Again, go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them. There it is again, baptizing them
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, okay? I don't want to harp on this
again, but just a reminder, when we baptize people, we're going to baptize them in the
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. We're going to identify, we're going to do,
identify the trinity, okay? That the entire nature of who God is, the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost. And then verse number 20. Teaching them to observe all things,
whatsoever I have commanded you. Now look at this, teaching them to observe all things,
all things. There it is, 66 books, right? 66 books in the Bible. All things need to be taught.
Now are you going to go out, you know, preach the gospel? Okay, now we're going to teach all 66
books of the Bible. Is that what? No, no, no. All right, so how do we teach them all things? What's
the next step? Once we get them saved, once we get them baptized, what's the next step? We need
to get them in church, okay? We get them in church. Coming to church is part of the discipleship
process. Now some churches have maybe some discipleship programs, I'm not against those
if they want to do that. Hey, but the best place to be discipled ought to be coming into the house
of the Lord. We hear doctrines, we hear preaching from the Word of God, but not only do you hear,
but again you can serve the brethren. You can take the things that you've learned and apply it to
other people. Some people replace going to church with listening to sermons online. Now I'm all in
favor of listening to sermons on the internet. I'm all in favor of that if it's great, but you're
going to be a very unhealthy Christian if that's all you do. If all you do is learn doctrine,
listening to preach online, but you never have the opportunity to be in a church, to serve the
brethren, to show them love, all right? To learn a bit of empathy, to pray for the brethren. The
more time you spend together, the more you realize, hold on, brother so-and-so and sister so-and-so,
they're weak and fallen like me. Hey, they have difficulties like me. They struggle like me,
you know? And if you're so puffed up, you're going to become hypocritical and go, hold on,
Christians ought to behave better. Hey look, Christians are just safe sinners, okay? We're
just growing. We're just maturing in the Lord as time goes by, and you know, sometimes you are going
to have difficulties in your spiritual walk. There might be times when you backslide, when you get a
bit further away from the Lord. You need to be encouraged. You need to be in church to be
encouraged by the brethren. Listen, I never want to see anybody in this church, and I will speak
to you harshly if I see you putting down other Christians, even if they're struggling in a
spiritual walk. What I want to see from you guys and from me is that I take them under my wing.
Hey brother, hey sister, can I pray for you? Hey, can I, you know, welcome to church. It's great to
see you. I haven't seen you for a while. You know, it's a blessing to see you. Encouraging the
brethren. We're all at different places in our spiritual walk. Sometimes we need to encourage
the brethren. Sometimes we'll need our brethren to encourage us. I'm the pastor of this church.
I'd be lying if I never said to you, sometimes I need your encouragement. You know, sometimes I
need your support. Hey pastor, just preach it, right? We want to hear what the word of God says,
you know? Is there anything I can do to pray for you? I appreciate those kinds of things that come
my way, but you can only do it in church. You can only learn all things by coming to church
and obviously having your own time of bible study and learning. Verse number 20 again,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I'm with you all way,
even unto the end of the world. Amen. So Jesus Christ promises us that he, look, he said go to
all nations, right? And I've preached on this before, but when the bible says I am with you
all way, it's different from all ways, okay? Your King James bible has all way and it has all ways,
okay? And all ways is a term, we don't use all way that much in our English language anymore.
We've basically replaced all ways with both of those things, but always is in reference to time,
you know, in time. So if I told my wife I will love you always, I'm saying to her that I will
always, I won't say that, you know, for all time I will love you, no matter what happens I will
always love you, but if I said all way, I'm saying all the way, all the way. This is in reference to
travel or distance, okay? So Jesus just finished, go to all nations and I'm going to be with you
all the way. Whichever way you go, Jesus Christ says I'm going to be with you even unto the end
of the world, amen. It's a promise given to us by Christ. Keep your finger there,
actually no don't keep your finger there because that's the last verse, but go to
Acts chapter one please, we're almost done. Acts chapter one, Acts chapter one verse one.
So let's have a look at the Great Commission now in the book of Acts, okay? And in the book of
Acts we have the Great Commission on the Mount of Olives, all right? So this is later, this is after
the appearance to Galilee. A lot of his disciples are still in Jerusalem and they've been commanded
by Jesus Christ to stay in Jerusalem in order for them to be empowered by the Holy Spirit
in Acts chapter two, the day of Pentecost. We won't go into that right now, but Acts chapter
one verse one, it says here, the former treaties have made Otheopolis, of all that Jesus began both
to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost
had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom also he
showed himself alive after his passion or after his crucifixion by many infallible proofs, being
seen of them 40 days. That's the 40 days, that's where we get the reference that Christ from his
crucifixion or his resurrection to the time he ascended up into heaven, it was 40 days. And
speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, being assembled together with them,
commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father,
which save he have heard of me. So where are they? Where are they? Verse number 12, drop down to verse
number 12, just very quickly, it says, then return they unto Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet,
that's the Mount of Olives, which is from Jerusalem, a Sabbath day journey. So just to show you again,
that's the placement for this story in the book of Acts is the Mount of Olives, it's not Galilee,
okay. Jesus Christ gives the Great Commission at least four times, okay, after his resurrection,
he keeps drumming this home, this is what you need to do, this is the work I've left you to do.
Go back to verse number eight, and Jesus says these words in verse number eight,
but ye shall receive power. Now remember in the book of Matthew, Jesus says, all power is given
unto me in heaven and in earth, right, and he says, look, I have all that power, now I'm going
to give you some of that power, that's the power of the Holy Ghost. When you've been saved, you
have the Holy Ghost indwelling you, okay, and before you go and do the work of Christ, before
I get up here and preach, and let me just say to David and Anthony, when you guys get up to preach,
ask the Lord to empower you to fill you with the Holy Ghost before you preach a sermon. Amen,
before you go out, or ladies, before you go out and preach the gospel door to door, ask the Lord
Jesus Christ to empower you, to fill you with the Holy Ghost. All power is given to Jesus,
he wants to give you the power by his spirit in order to do great works for him, but it says
there in verse number eight, but ye shall receive power, and after that the Holy Ghost has come upon
you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me. Look, he doesn't say this is an option, you can be
witnesses to me if you want, he says ye shall be witnesses unto me. This is the whole purpose
of leaving us on this earth, right, I mean if all that mattered was to go to heaven and be saved,
then as soon as you're saved, God can just take you there and then. The whole purpose of leaving
us on this earth, guys, is that we can do the work of God, that we can get rewards in heaven,
we can lay up treasures in heaven, and the main task is the great commission, the great work
of going out and being a witness, right. He says here, and ye shall be witnesses unto me,
both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. It's
kind of like all nations again, once again, the uttermost part of the earth, and it's quite funny
because I preach a lot, I mean I don't think I've ever preached just one sermon on soul winning,
but like it's in most of my sermons, right. You can't get away, I don't know how you can get away
by preaching like entire chapters and just avoid soul winning, you know, especially in the gospel
messages, right, Jesus Christ, because that's all they're doing. When they're going from town to
town, what are they doing? Are they just feeding the poor? They're just trying to, no, they're
preaching the gospel, right, they're preaching the gospel through chapter by chapter. Anyway,
just this afternoon I had a message from a lady from the church in Queensland and said, oh,
I met this lady who would like to, with a family, come to our church, but she thought soul winning
was compulsory. Like the only way, you're only allowed to come to our church if you had to go
soul winning, otherwise you're not permitted to come to our church. Of course, look, it's not
compulsory, right. Now look, is it compulsory to Jesus? Yeah, it is. Okay, you shall be witnesses
to me, right. We should be doing this work of Christ, but you know, you don't have to feel
compelled, you know, in this church to go soul winning, you know, that's between you and God,
it's not between you and me, you know, but I'm kind of glad that a person thought it was compulsory
by our church. Like I'd rather them think it's compulsory than think we don't even care about it,
you know, so I'm glad, I'm glad that's kind of been going out there a little bit. Verse number
nine, and when they had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up. This is the bit
he's taken up, right, and a cloud received him out of their sight. So I just wanted to close on this,
these are the last words of Christ before he goes up into heaven. Again, the Great Commission,
again, this time on the Mount of Olives. So don't you think this is a very important part of our
church? Don't you think this should be such an important part of our Christian life, to complete
this Great Commission? You know, many churches today, it's not the Great Commission, it's the
Great Omission, okay, it's omitted from their church. Many churches today, many independent,
fundamental Baptist churches today, are pulling back on the preaching of the gospel, you know,
instead they replaced it with tract distributions. Let's put a tract, a piece of paper, in a letter
box, and I think I've done what Christ has asked me to do. Is that what God has asked us to do?
Is that what Christ has asked us to do, to take a piece of paper and put it into the letter box?
Look, I see kids doing that job, all right, they're putting in the big W magazine, they're
putting in the, you know, look, the kids can do that, kids can put paper in a letter box.
What Christ asked from us is to be a witness unto him, to open our mouths and proclaim boldly
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not just pastors, not just missionaries and evangelists, he says
it to all, everyone that's been born again, you know, and if by preaching this, this makes you
uncomfortable because you don't go soul winning, well, yeah, feel uncomfortable because that's what
you should be doing, right? You don't come to church just to hear what you want to hear, right?
You want to, you know, be challenged, we need to be challenged, and look, I understand, my wife has
10 kids, I mean, I should say I have 10 kids too, I have 10 kids too, we both have 10 kids,
but, and it's so, it's harder for her, obviously, I go out soul winning, she looks after the kids
in order for me to have the ability to do that, hey, but guess what she's teaching the kids,
how to preach the gospel, all right, she might not have as much opportunity as I do,
but one day we're going to have an army of 10 kids going out there preaching the gospel,
thanks to my wife, you know, we can all play a part if all you're doing is being a help to
someone else to go out, and that's a great start, you know, you can go out as a silent partner as
well, you don't have to, hey, I've never done it before, you say I've never done it before,
I don't know what to do, I'm uncomfortable, hey, go someone that is comfortable, go
someone that can speak, all you have to do is be silent, you can just watch, you can pray,
you can carry the tracts, you can carry the Bibles, you can carry whatever it is that you need to do,
all right, for that person, and be that silent partner, but get involved in the work,
you say I can't get into the work during the hours that the church does, well,
make sure you do it during your life, you know, all of us have unsaved family members,
unsaved friends, unsaved work colleagues, or whatever, we all have these people in our lives,
when you have time to be alone with them one-on-one, what a perfect opportunity to give
them the gospel, now if they reject it, they reject it, it's not your problem, you know,
but your issue, your work is to make sure you give it to them, how sad would you be on judgment day,
when you know your loved ones, your friends go to hell, and you had the opportunity,
you had the opportunity and you never gave them the gospel, how sad would that be,
now it's a different story if you try to give them the gospel and they rejected it,
there's not much you can do, you know, your hands are clean there, okay, but what if you
never did it, what if you were given that opportunity, right, and you never took it,
so please, it's not just the hour that the church does it, think about your daily life,
it ought to be just part of your life, when I get a chance with a person, I'm going to
give them the gospel, it's a great commission that Jesus Christ left us, let's pray,
heavenly father, I just want to thank you for the chapter of your resurrection,
Lord, thank you for the power of your resurrection, and Lord, I thank you for the promise
that you say to us, Lord, that you will give us the power through the Holy Ghost
to do the great works that you've left us to do, and Lord, I just pray you'd help each one of us to
be a witness unto you, Lord, thank you for saving us, Lord, thank you for giving us your life,
Lord, and I just pray you'd encourage us and edify us, build us up, Lord,
to be witnesses unto you as well, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Let all the people praise thee, O let the nations be glad and sing for joy.