The Command of Missions Part One "The Context of the Great Commission"

The Resurrection Context of the Great Commission

Matthew chapter 28. Now, the title of the sermon is the context of the Great Commission, but we're going to read the passage in context. So let's start back at verse 1, Matthew 28. It says, now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.

Behold, there was a great earthquake for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning and his clothing as white as snow.

And the guards quaked from fear of him and became like dead men. And the angel answered and said to the women, do not be afraid for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here for he has risen just as he said, come see the place where he was lying and go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead and behold, he is going ahead of you into Galilee.

There you will see him. Behold, I have told you. And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, greetings, and they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.

Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid. Go and report to my brothers to leave for Galilee. And there they will see me. Now, while they were on their way, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened.

And when they had assembled with the elders and took counsel together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers and said, you are to say his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.

And if this is heard before the governor, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble. And they took the money and did as they had been instructed. And this story was widely spread among the Jews and is to this day, verse 16.

But the 11 disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. And when they saw him, they worshiped him. But some doubted. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, 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 the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

What an amazing testimony. What an amazing eyewitness account of the risen Christ, the context of the Great Commission. A Christian pastor once told a story about missions regarding a particular Chinese congregation.

He said, a man I met spoke intimately of a certain section of China. He mentioned specific towns and villages, certain missionaries and various stations, and the names of Chinese pastors. I asked when he had been in China.

And he replied that he had never been there. Years before, his college roommate had gone there as a missionary. They had corresponded regularly, writing once a month. And he had spent a great deal of time praying for his friend.

He marked on maps the trips his friend described in his letters. He dotted his map and made marks identifying churches and particular chapels. He memorized the names of believers about whom the missionary had written.

He supported the work of the mission with his personal gifts to his friend. He sent special sums of money for special needs. Through his participation, they were helped to be educated. And some of the young men were educated in that region.

He lifted his heart daily to God. He lifted his heart daily to God in prayer for what had become, really, by extension, his congregation. Now, this story is brief. But it gives us a window into the heart of missions.

This brief story on missions and supporting missionaries illustrates that you too can give Christian support. You can give Christian missionaries your support abroad. And know intimately what their ministry is all about and support that ministry with your gifts, with your financial support, and most importantly, your prayers.

You can win some of that which Christ died. You can lay at his feet, even as part of your own heart, the missions that are going on across the globe. That is the beauty of missions. The wonderful blessing of answering the call of the Great Commission given to us by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

And for the next few weeks, we will spend time in the Gospel of Matthew answering the question, what is the Great Commission? What is the Great Commission? The Gospel of Matthew demonstrated that Jesus was king and taught the reader about the coming of his kingdom.

The Gospel of Matthew was written to account for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And to inform the reader of Israel's error in rejecting Jesus as the true king and the true Messiah, while clearly demonstrating Christ's rightful kingship over his people as the true Messiah.

The themes of the book help to establish the clarity as Jesus as king and the coming of his kingdom in both the incarnation and future kingdom. By focusing on the themes, the outline with general division, this gospel speaks for itself in regard to demonstrating Jesus Christ as the rightful king of Israel and the rightful king over all creation, over all nations.

Some of the themes include the genealogy of Christ. We see God in the Trinity. The kingdom of heaven. Of course, Jesus as the king of Israel. We see in this narrative, the eyewitness historical testimony here, the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, the error of the Sadducees.

We see what true righteousness is. It's Jesus Christ. We see the rejection of Christ. And most importantly, we see the death and the resurrection of Jesus. The gospel of Matthew can be broken up really into three main divisions.

The first is the coming of Jesus as the king of Israel. This is the first nine chapters, Matthew chapter 1 through chapter 9. This section details the advent of Jesus as king in his authority as king.

The second is Jesus's purpose as king. This is Matthew chapter 10 through chapter 17. This is a section that records the agenda of Jesus as king and the adversaries to his rightful kingship. Third is the work of Jesus as king.

The work of Jesus as king. This is Matthew 18 through Matthew 28. This is where we find ourselves this morning. This section highlights the administration of Jesus's kingdom, the atoning work of Jesus and his command for his subjects.

The gospel of Matthew is an instructive gospel written for converted Jewish people to clearly demonstrate Jesus as rightful king over all Israel and all the nations. The gospel prepares its readers for the glorious blessings of reconciliation with God the Father in the coming kingdom of heaven.

A peace we have now here while we're on earth and a future kingdom to come due solely on the atoning work of the king, Jesus Christ. The Great Commission passage before us in Matthew explains the doctrine of the command of missions in a crystal clear way so that you can see the biblical basis for evangelizing locally and supporting missions globally.

And so that's where we're at this morning. Three really instructive and straightforward reasons for missions. We'll tackle the first this morning. It's the context. Number one, the context. Verses 16 and 17.

And number two, the command. Number two, the command in verses 18 and 19. And number three, the clarification. Verse 20. Three instructive and straightforward reasons for missions. The context, the command, and the clarification.

This morning we'll look at the context. Look with me at verse 16. It says, but the 11 disciples proceeded to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had designated. The disciples went to Galilee because that is where Jesus told them to go.

That is where Jesus told them to meet. Verse 10 explains that Jesus had given specific direction on where to meet. The context for the command of the Great Commission is so very vital to get. The context of the resurrection of Jesus is the fuel for the living out of the command.

If we don't get this right, the weight of the command is not understood correctly. We can probably think about the reality of the resurrection in two ways. The internal evidence within the scripture and the external evidence outside of the Bible existing in the facts of history, which also correlate with the testimony of the scripture.

So first we'll look at these two areas. But first we'll look at the internal evidence. The context of the Great Commission is the resurrection. So let me just point a few things out to us. Now I believe you have this on your handout.

Internal evidence is existing, occurring, or found within the limits or scope of something. The eyewitness testimony of the gospels in the Bible is the best evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. We don't need anything else.

We have it in the scripture. The Bible is a book of antiquity that was written over approximately 1600 years by an estimated 35 to 40 men. The earliest books of the Old Testament were written around 1445 BC with Genesis, of course, written by Moses.

Most scholars think the book of Job even predates the book of Genesis, but a definitive date is not widely accepted. The last book written in AD 95 is the Revelation of Jesus Christ by the Apostle John.

Although the Bible was written by many different men over a large period, there is a commonality or cohesiveness to the Bible's message. The books that describe the resurrection of Jesus are, of course, the gospels.

The Gospel of Matthew was written in AD 50 to 60 by the Apostle Matthew, by Levi, who was an eyewitness to the resurrection. The Gospel of Mark was written around the same time, a little after, 50 to 60, somewhere in there, by Mark John, John Mark, the interpreter and ministry partner of the Apostle Peter.

Of course, John Mark wrote his gospel based on Peter's eyewitness testimony and other testimony. The Gospel of Luke was written AD 60 to 61 by the physician Luke, also known as Luke the historian, for the many historical details he included in his gospel.

Luke was a traveling companion and a ministry partner of the Apostle Paul. Luke wrote his gospel based on personal investigation into the resurrection by compiling eyewitness testimonies and the experience the Apostle Paul had with Jesus.

And of course, finally, the Gospel of John, written around AD about 80 to 90 by the Apostle John while he was exiled on the island of Patmos. John wrote the gospel based on his own personal eyewitness testimony.

And so we can think about this idea of the context of the Great Commission in the timing of Jesus's appearance in the resurrection. And so I share this with you. You do have this on your handout. Let's just trace Jesus's resurrection.

What was going on with the risen Christ is the context for which this command is given. So let's think about this. And we can just go right through the order of his appearing. This is the timing of Jesus's resurrection appearances.

On the third day after his crucifixion, Jesus appeared several times to different people. The first person was Mary Magdalene. Mary witnessed two angelic beings at the tomb of Jesus as she was weeping over the disappearance of Jesus's body.

And Jesus appeared to her and had a conversation with her. Jesus then appeared to women who aided and followed his ministry. After he sent Mary Magdalene to tell his disciples what she had seen, another group of women arrived at the tomb.

Joanna, Salome, another Mary, not Magdalene, and at least one other woman arrived at the tomb and witnessed an angel who sent them off to proclaim that Jesus was alive. Jesus was alive. And Jesus appeared to them on the road and they traveled into town together.

Jesus appeared next to the apostle Peter, to Cephas. The details of this visit are not explicitly described in the Bible except that it preceded Jesus's next appearance. Jesus appeared next to a man named Cleopas and his friend.

They were traveling on the road to Emmaus, at which time Jesus spoke with them and accompanied them to their village where he ate with them. They didn't just see like a vapor or an apparition. They're having a conversation.

They're hanging out. They're eating together. It seems like they're talking about theology. He was unfolding the scriptures with them. Then Jesus appeared to the apostles minus Thomas. He spoke with them, showing his physical wounds on his hands and feet.

And again, he ate with them, spending time with them. Eight days later, Jesus again appeared to the apostles, this time including Thomas. He let Thomas see his wounds and physically touch the wound on the side of the body from the tip of the spear that a Roman soldier had pierced him with during the last stage of his crucifixion.

Over the next few weeks, Jesus appeared several times, several times. First, Jesus appeared to his disciples on the Sea of Tiberias in Galilee, where he spent time with them eating breakfast and he gave them instructions on caring for and protecting his followers.

Next, Jesus appeared to his disciples and a crowd numbering 500 at a mountain in Galilee, where he gave a sermon. Third, he appeared to James, the half-brother of Jesus. On the 40th day after his first appearance, Jesus appeared for the final time, excluding his later appearance to the Apostle Paul during his conversion on the road to Damascus.

He appeared to his disciples and led them to the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem, where he gave them a command. He gave them a command to go into the world telling people about what had taken place, telling people about the gospel, about his life, his death, his resurrection, the good news of salvation.

Jesus gave his followers a command to make disciples of all ethnicities and teach them to obey what he had commanded while he was here in his earthly ministry. And then they witnessed his ascension into heaven.

Jesus would end up appearing over a period of 40 days. Jesus appeared to his apostles, as well as others that were not directly involved in his ministry. He appeared physically. He ate and shared meals with them.

And he stayed in their company for a lengthy duration, having conversations and explaining his resurrection to them. Eventually, Jesus appeared to 500 people and gave a sermon where he was visibly seen and heard.

So at the time the gospels were written, anyone who claimed that Jesus had not risen could be easily refuted because of the enormous amount of time Jesus had spent with people after his death and the large number of eyewitnesses to his appearances.

There are no contradictions, zero contradictions with the different eyewitness claims found in the different gospels. The context of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the reason for living out the command.

And we can move on in verse 17. Read with me. It says that, And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. It says the disciples worshipped him, but some doubted too. You think, how is that possible?

How could they see him? And some of them having been with him for that ministry time on earth, he's performed all of these miracles and signs. They're with the risen Christ and they're still doubting, still doubting.

The Greek word for worship literally means to express an attitude or gestures, basically one's complete dependence on or submission to a high authority figure. You know, think to fall down and worship, to prostrate oneself before, to do reverence to someone, to worship.

Specifically, the risen Lord is the object of their worship. And they're worshipping him as God because he is God. But we can ask, how is it possible that upon witnessing the risen Jesus, how could anyone doubt?

Well, I think there's two things to consider here. One, that Matthew included this eyewitness testimony in the moments before Jesus ascended into heaven shows the depth of honesty in his account. This could have easily been excluded.

Of course, we know from the Bible's proclamation of its own inspiration and transmission that Matthew or Levi was moved along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. But think about this particular element in verse 17.

He adds this in there, that there were some who doubted. There were some who doubted. It shows the honesty in the account, the integrity in the account. One commentator pointed this out. That simple phrase is one of countless testimonies to the integrity of Scripture.

That transparent honesty of a statement like this shows that Matthew was not attempting to exclude or cover up facts that might lessen the perfection of such a glorious moment. So that that is in there.

Praise God that he included that. The integrity and honesty of this particular passage of Scripture. And second, I think the best way to understand this statement of doubt is looking at parallel passages.

So we can look at a parallel passage this morning. I think it adds clarity in the Gospel of Mark. The eyewitness testimony from Peter's account of this moment is helpful. Now, remember, John Mark, the writer of the Gospel of Mark, was Peter's ministry partner and interpreter.

The Gospel of Mark would have been compiled by statements of Christ remembered by Mark and reported to him by the various apostles and disciples of Jesus, especially Peter. Justin Martyr, the early church father, referred to the Gospel of Mark as the memoirs of Peter.

But that was kind of cool. The memoirs of Peter. Well, in Mark's parallel testimony leading up to his account of the Great Commission text here in Matthew, we see some clues about the doubting heart. Mark 16, starting in verse 9.

And this is what is recorded there. It says, now, after he had risen early on the first day of the week, he first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went and reported to those who had been with him while they were mourning and crying.

And when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it, even though he had said that was what was going to happen. They just did. They said, no, this can't be. After that, he appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking along on their way to the countryside.

And they went away and reported it to the others, but they did not believe them either. The reality is that eyewitness does not equal belief. Jesus Christ performed many, many miracles, signs and wonders, validating that he was, in fact, the promised Messiah that was predicted in the Old Testament prophecies.

He performed many signs and wonders, many miracles, witnessed by many people, and they did not all believe. So we have to remember that eyewitness does not equal belief. Eyewitness does not equal belief.

One way to think about this, there's a famous Christian apologist, and he was in a debate with a, I'd say, I guess, famous atheist. You know, a Christian apologist doing a debate on the existence of God, and they're going back and forth.

So you have this professing atheist, you have the Christian apologist, they're in a debate together, and the one, you know, brother of the Christian is trying to explain to the atheist why we should believe in the Scripture, why we should believe in the eyewitness testimony of the Gospels.

And it got contentious, and to a point, the question was asked, essentially, what evidence would you need to believe in God? What evidence would you need to see to believe in God? And so the atheist said, if you were to wheel in a cart here with a corpse on it, and you were to bring that corpse back to life, that you would raise a dead man to be alive again, that's the evidence I require.

I want to see this happen. I want to see a dead body come back to life. And very famously, the Christian apologist said, no, you wouldn't. You still wouldn't believe. You would just come up with a naturalistic view on why he came back to life.

Eyewitness does not equal belief. Jesus performed miracles in the presence of many who witnessed these signs and wonders, and they still did not believe. And this is where we can look at the external evidence.

External evidence. Actually, there is a lot of external evidence for the life, death, and even resurrection of Jesus Christ. External evidence is situated or being outside of something. So this is acting or coming from without.

Although evidence exists in the facts of history, many still doubt. The facts of history exist within and outside of the Bible. There's only one book that predicts future events as history, and that book is the Bible.

So we want to make sure we make that point. Historical realities, archaeological evidence, and the writings and witness of pagan historians affirm the truth of the Bible as historical fact. What we see in the facts of history match with the testimony of the scripture.

There have been many secular figures and pagan historians that have written about Jesus's life, about Jesus's crucifixion, and about Jesus's resurrection. So we can turn to a few of these. Here's the first one.

One of the pagan testimonies involving Jesus was a historian and senator of the Roman Empire. His name was Publius Cornelius Tacitus. Tacitus wrote two historical volumes. The first named the Annals, and the second is the Histories.

And those time periods span from about 14 to 70. AD 14 to about AD 70. As well as a few biographies in his later life. Tacitus is known as the dean of Roman historians. Tacitus described the group known as Christians with Christus, who under the reign of Tiberius, quote, suffered death by the sentence of the procreator Pontius Pilate.

This verifies the eyewitness testimonies of the Gospels that state Christ was sentenced to death by Pilate. More specifically, the Gospel of Luke states that Tiberius Caesar was in ruling power at the time over Pontius Pilate.

So Tacitus is a real world historian existing outside of the Bible that affirms the Bible is true regarding the testimony of the Gospels. Just one example. We'll look at a few more. We could be here for a few weeks if we looked at every example.

Another example of pagan testimony is a man named Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus. That's a mouthful. Try saying that three times fast. I'll just say it once and I'm good. More well known is Pliny the Younger.

So this is Pliny the Younger. He lived 61 to 113. Well, Pliny was a lawyer, an author, a magistrate of Rome, and later served as a, as basically proprietor of Bithynia and Pontius in Asia Minor. So this guy himself was a Pontius later.

So in AD 112, Pliny the Younger wrote to Trajan, the emperor of Rome, regarding Christians. He communicated a few things that are interesting. He was actually asking how to kill them. He knew that they were being executed.

So he says, hey, you're killing them over there. How should I kill them over here? Should I kill them? How should I kill them? So that's the context of the letter. This is not a good guy. He communicated some interesting things, though, beyond this request of how to kill them.

He communicated that Christians were unwilling to engage in activities like theft or adultery, and he affirmed they engaged in living godly lives. We sometimes miss that evidence in Pliny's, you know, again, this is a letter that is from antiquity.

It's a historical document. So he's saying they're unwilling to engage in theft and adultery. He affirmed they lived godly lives. He also stated, quote, they sing a song to Christ as to a god. They sing a song to Christ as to a god.

Pliny also sought advice on how to deal with the Christians and affirms that Christians were put to death for their beliefs, which included the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is a resurrection evidence.

People were willing to be executed over their claim that they had seen the risen Christ, and they believed it, whether they saw it or not, based on the testimony of these witnesses, these eyewitnesses.

Many early Christians would rather be put to death than deny the truth of the resurrection. The letter written by Pliny to Trajan is one of the earliest surviving documents of Rome that refers to early Christianity.

And here's another example. Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius. He was a Roman historian who wrote the lives of the 12 Caesars. In this historical work, Suetonius mentions that some Jews were expelled from Rome due to the disturbance to the religious system of Rome because of their worship of Christos, of Christ.

They were disturbing the order of things. They're this Christian cult of fanatics who believe a dead man has come back to life, and they're messing up the natural order of things in their worship of Christos, or Christ.

And so that's Suetonius. There's another, Lucian, Lucian of Samosata. He was a Greek novelist, a satirist, a rhetorician. He wrote a satire on Christianity that described Christians, quote, as this new cult.

There's a new cult on the scene, and these fanatics believe that Jesus has risen from the dead. He wrote this satire, it described them as a cult, and then he described Christ as, quote, the one who was crucified in Palestine.

So this is a historical marking that Jesus lived, people worshiped him, and he was killed and crucified exactly the way the Gospels say. And our last example we'll look at is Josephus. Titus Flavius Josephus.

He was born in AD 37 and died around 100. Josephus was a Jewish historian, a scholar, and biographical writer. In his many writings, Josephus mentioned James as, quote, the brother of Jesus, the so-called Christ.

The thing about these pagan historians is these are not fans of Jesus. Josephus famously called him a donkey. This is not a Christian. That's why the external evidence is compelling, because these are not Christian men.

These are secular pagans that are writing this information. Josephus wrote specifically on Christ, and he quotes, he says, he's a wise man that was condemned to die on the cross by Pilate. Condemned to die on the cross by Pilate.

These historians affirm the claims of the Bible as historical facts. This is reality. There are no contradictions between the Bible's claims and the facts of history in any of these cases. Historical facts support the truth of the reality of the resurrection.

Natural events help in giving evidence for the basis of faith, but natural or supernatural events will not cause belief. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus illustrates this perfectly. So, you can turn there with me.

It's in Luke chapter 16, starting in verse 19. Luke chapter 16, starting in verse 19. Where does the faith come from? What is the source of our belief? Luke chapter 16, starting in verse 19, it says, now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day.

But a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table. Besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.

Now, it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom, and the rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham from far away and Lazarus in his bosom.

And he cried out and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame. But Abraham said, Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things, but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.

And besides all this, between us and you, there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you are not able, and none may cross from there to us. And he said, Then I am asking you, Father, that you send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, in order that he may warn them, so they will not also come to this place of torment.

But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. But he said, No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. But he said to him, If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded, even if someone rises from the dead.

The point is, the facts of history and physical evidence are nice regarding the resurrection, but if you don't believe the internal testimony of the word of God, then you won't believe. If you are not regularly sharing Jesus with others, there may be a gap in your belief in the resurrection.

If the resurrection is true, it is impossible not to witness. Does your witness of Christ match your belief in the resurrection? And that's what this passage forces us to see. This is really the point of this passage, the context of the command.

This command wasn't given in a vacuum devoid of reality. There was something that happened preceding this command. Three instructive and straightforward reasons for missions. Number one, the context. The context of the resurrection provides a pure and powerful motivation to obey the command of the Great Commission.

Number two, the command itself, verses 18 and 19. And number three, the clarification, verse 20. And Lord willing, we'll look at those in the coming weeks. Three instructive and straightforward reasons for missions.

The context of the resurrection provides a pure and powerful motivation to obey the command of the Great Commission. The Bible teaches us that God sent Jesus into the world. He was sent into the world so that those who believe in him will have eternal life.

The Bible also teaches us that if we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, and what? Believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, then we are saved. That's Romans 10. Have you accepted Jesus, not just as your Savior, but as your Lord?

Have you accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord? Do you believe in your heart that the resurrection is the truth? This happened. Jesus died for your sins. He was buried and he was raised three days later, according to the scriptures.

Do you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead? There is a connection to genuine salvation and belief that the resurrection took place. If you don't believe in the resurrection, you don't have salvation.

This isn't an optional part of the gospel. If God didn't raise Jesus to new life, how are we to be raised to new life? The resurrection is part of the gospel. If you don't believe in the resurrection, there is no salvation.

In other words, if we take the resurrection out of the gospel, we don't have the full gospel. There is a connection to genuine salvation in belief that the resurrection took place. As redeemed, born-again believers, there is a connection to our belief and understanding of the resurrection to our witnessing of the risen Christ.

The resurrection to our witness. Now, for us locally, we can fulfill the great commission of the Lord by sharing the good news. Here in this community, sharing your personal testimony. Remember these words of our Lord.

What a gift we have to have these words recorded. What a gift we have. Literally, the final words Jesus spoke while he was still here on the earth. Think about it like this, the last words of someone, the deathbed words, the last words of someone who is dying or someone we're going to not see again.

They're dying or they're leaving. These are very important words to us. Jesus's final words of his earthly ministry to us are recorded here for us so that we can rightly think about the divine command given by the Lord.

His last words of instruction. First, professing followers of Jesus are under his authority. They're under his authority. Second, professing believers were to make more disciples. There is an obvious implication that every regenerated, redeemed believer is commanded to share the good news.

You are not responsible for the conversion. God will do that. You are responsible to share the good news. Third, followers of Christ are to baptize and teach new converts to obey Christ, to obey him. And finally, the promise that Christ would be with his disciples always.

It's true that in previous missions, Jesus had sent out his disciples only to the Jewish people. After their rejection of him as their Messiah, the disciples mission from then on would be worldwide. Very simply, Jesus is Lord of all the earth.

Jesus died for the sins of people from all nations. As professing followers of Jesus, you are to go. But famously, there was a preacher I was listening to was talking about evangelism. He's actually the outreach pastor at a fairly well-known church.

And he said that if you're going past your neighbor's door to evangelize, then you're not evangelizing the right way. We don't go out into the world if we haven't first talked to our neighbor. We can't check the missions box and say, I'm part of the Great Commission.

Sending a check to a stranger does not eliminate you from doing this command. This command is for you here locally. And then we support outwards to reach unknown people groups, the ethnos, the ethnicities.

Jesus died for the sins of all people of all nation groups. And we are to go as sent ones based on the context here, the resurrection of Jesus. Whether that means next door or to another country. You are to go and share the good news and make disciples.

There is no opt out here. There is no opt out and saying, I don't have the gift of evangelism. You have the gift of the Holy Spirit and you have the word of God. This is all you need. You have everything you need.

You have the Holy Spirit and you have the word of God. This is not an option, but a command to all who call Jesus Lord. If you call Jesus your Lord, you need to settle in your mind that he is the king of all creation.

We are his subjects. By not participating, you are disobeying the command of your king. If you're going to call Jesus your Lord, then you need to do what Jesus tells you to do. You are sent ones. You are called out.

If you are a believer and not sharing the gospel with unbelievers in your sphere of influence, then you are not obeying your Lord. And we are not all evangelists in the formal sense. I understand that.

However, the Bible clearly teaches that we have all received spiritual gifts so that we can use them to fulfill the great commission, that we would build each other up as fellow brothers and sisters of Christ.

And we would be prepared for the work of the ministry, sharing the gospel locally and supporting missions globally. As we obey, we can be greatly comforted in the reality that Jesus is always with us.

Think about that statement. Say, I don't like going out. I need people to go with me. I'm not a big talker. I just, I don't want to go by myself. If you go out by yourself, you are not by yourself. If you go out by yourself, you are not going out alone.

Jesus is with you. Jesus will help you. The Holy Spirit will give you the words to say. The great commission passage in Matthew explains the doctrine of the command of missions in a crystal clear way so that you can see the biblical basis for evangelizing locally and supporting missions globally.

Three instructive and straightforward reasons for missions. The context of the resurrection provides a pure and powerful motivation to obey the command of the great commission. And number two, the command itself.

And number three, the clarification of the command. The Puritan Matthew Henry commented thus on verses 16 and 17. Matthew Henry, the great theologian, Puritan scholar, and Christian brother, Christian churchman.

He said this. Quote, he said, this evangelist passes over other appearances of Christ recorded by Luke and John and hastens to the most solemn. One appointed before his death and after his resurrection.