Matthew 28
RileyMatthew 28:1-15
CHRIST’S AND CERTAINMat_27:62 to Matthew 28:15THIS Scripture involves the very citadel of Christianity. The Apostle Paul reasons with a logic that cannot be gainsaid, that “if Christ be not risen from the dead our faith is in vain”. The dead have perished and the living are without hope.But the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is in itself not sufficient. The ascension is absolutely necessary to the completion of His claims, and the exercise of His powers. Our question, then, couples two words which are complementary. The resurrection without the ascension would prove nothing more than a reanimation—a Lazarus, and not a Lord.
An ascension without a resurrection would demonstrate nothing better than a translation—a Prophet Elijah perhaps, but not the Son of God with whom is all power.It was a marvelous thing that Jesus was begotten by the Holy Ghost, but even that would not demonstrate above discussion His essential Deity. Adam was the generation of the Spirit and not that of a human father. The working of miracles on the part of Jesus is not a sufficient evidence of His claim. Miracles occurred under the hands of Moses and Elijah and others who were nothing more than men of marked faith in the Almighty. The one who sets up a claim as the very Christ of God must not only bring us certain evidence of Divine appointment, such as mortal men have enjoyed, but a chain of evidences stretching from His first appearance in the world clear on to His second coming, and every link thereof must bear the imprint of the superhuman.It will be conceded, I think, that the central argument of all the arguments presented in the Name of Christ, rests with this question, Did He rise from the dead and ascend into Heaven?In answer to that I bring you first of all these texts from the Scriptures, and in elaboration of these suggest some thoughts for solemn reflection. FOR THE . It is not begging the question to appeal to the Bible for arguments of the resurrection. Even infidels concede that the Old Testament Scriptures were in the hands of men when Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth; and very few intellectual, honest men question that the New Testament was born within a century after His reputed ascension. If, therefore, they are not trustworthy, skepticism has already enjoyed two thousand years of opportunity to disprove their statements. If, at the end of this time, the statements stand and gather to themselves an ever-increasing company who consent that they have made good their right to a place in the catalogue of historical facts, why should we not appeal to them in discussing the very subject that gave them their existence?According to the Scriptures there are many lines of argument for the resurrection. Let me make mention of four of them.The argument of the Empty Tomb. “In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. “And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from Heaven, and came and rolled hack the stone from the door, and sat upon it. “His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: “And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. “And the angel answered and said unto the woman, 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, see the place where the Lord lay” (Matthew 28:1-6). That statement is either true or false. If false, why did not the enemies of Christ expose the deception? That He had enemies, not even infidels question. That He was hunted to the Cross, no one now disputes. That He was buried is as certain as the execution of the Roman law. What became of the body? This was the very thing His enemies had feared. They had reminded Pilate of His prophecy, “After three days I will rise again”, and had asked that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day. And Pilate had said unto them,“Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can. “So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch” (Matthew 27:65-66). But when the resurrection was accomplished, “some of the watch came unto the City, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done.“And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers,“Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole Him away while we slept.“And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.“So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and tins saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day” (Matthew 28:11-15).It is a singular thing, yet a certain one, that people can never manufacture a falsehood, the various parts of which can hang together. And when they asked the watchers to testify that they had slept on duty until Jesus had been stolen away from His grave, they confessed to a fault of which Roman watchers dare not be guilty on the very peril of life itself; and yet from that hour no better explanation of an empty tomb has been furnished the world. Within a century after these reputed events, the whole Roman empire was permeated by the doctrines of Christ, and men by the thousands and tens of thousands believed on Him as risen from the dead. The argument that entered into the conviction of the first century was that of the empty tomb.There is the argument of the word of the angel to the woman. When you get together a company of spiritualists, everyone expecting to see a spook, it is fairly easy to fool the crowd. Turn the lights low, secure a ventriloquist or even a good actor, and your purpose is accomplished.
But when the skeptical are present, the performance is commonly balked. They are not looking for spooks and they do not see them.
These skeptics are valuable in uncovering fakes and pretenders; but Christ convinced skeptics in every instance.The women who went to His tomb were skeptics. As much as they loved Him they never expected to see Him alive again. They went not for the purpose of anointing a risen Christ, but to embalm a dead One. They would not believe in the resurrection even on the authority of the angel’s testimony; and that, notwithstanding the fact that the two angels were in shining garments and they felt compelled to bow down their faces to the earth in their very presence. They were not even convinced when the angels reminded them of the prophecy, “The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again”, though it is distinctly declared that “they remembered His words”. Not until they had seen Him, not until they had heard His voice, were they convinced.The Apostles were skeptics everyone.
It is reported that the words of these women “seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not”.Peter and John went on a tour of personal investigation. And when they beheld “the linen clothes laid by themselves” they were not convinced, but “departed wondering”.The two on the way to Emmaus were skeptics when Christ fell in with them, for He had to argue with them from the Scriptures that He was to be “condemned to die and crucified and raised again the third day”.Thomas would not even take the testimony of his brethren, and insisted that nothing short of His own senses would cause him to believe.Paul was so unbelieving that he persecuted every man who named the Name of Christ.
And yet one after another, they were compelled to capitulate and accept as true what the angels had said to the women, “He is risen”. The word of an angel might, in itself, seem to have some authority, but when that word is attended by such evidences as to convince man after man against his expectation, utterly setting aside his skepticism, who will question its weight?Again, there is the argument of the sight and statements of sane men. Paul splendidly sums this up in his Epistle to the Corinthians. He says, “He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve; “After that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. “After that, He was seen of James; then of all the Apostles. “And last of all He was seen of me also, as one born out of due time” (1 Corinthians 15:5-8). When Mahomet expired, it is reported that Omar rushed from the tent, sword in hand, and declared that he would hue down any one who should dare to say that the Prophet was no more. But the Apostles of Jesus Christ behaved quite to the contrary. They consented that their Hero was dead; they mourned Him as gone forever; they could not believe what their ears heard concerning His resurrection, and it required the indisputable evidence of His personal presence to convince them. When 500 sane men and women stand up to testify to one thing, who would dispute them without the most overwhelming evidence to the contrary; and where is the evidence that opposed their testimony?The speech of Christ Himself also must be considered. Matthew does not finish his report of this evidence until he has recorded the words of Jesus, for the eleven disciples went away into Galilee unto the place where He had appointed them,“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto Me in Heaven and in earth. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:18-20). From that time until His ascension, He talked with them again and again. Every touch was a new revelation of Himself; every word an additional proof. It was the forty days between the resurrection and the ascension that confirmed the faith of His followers, and made them ready to do, to dare, to die!Dr. Lorimer, in his “Argument for Christianity”, remarks upon a time when, more than a hundred years ago, a little Baptist Association deliberately resolved on “the reduction of heathenism, and determined on sending out an army of occupation. The stupendous audaciousness of the purpose excited the ridicule of not a few worldly-wise individuals, and indeed was without a parallel except in the earliest aggressions of the Church. And what rendered the movement more entertaining to the scoffers, and what imparted to it more and more of the spirit of desperate rashness and presumption, was the fact that the enterprise was entrusted to the generalship of a ‘consecrated cobbler’ who himself constituted nearly all there was of the expedition.”But bold as was that endeavor, and marvelous as was the faith that attended it, bolder still was the faith of those poor, plain fishermen in their march upon the heathenism of the world, and infinitely greater was the confidence which they had in the Man of Nazareth!
What is the explanation? For forty days, He who had been crucified before their eyes and buried in the tomb of one who had befriended Him, against which a stone had been sealed and about which a watch had been set, walked with them, talked with them, and inspired them, and finally ascended into the heavens before their very eyes! Aye, that was the foundation of their faith; that is the explanation of their courage; that is the secret of their willingness to be martyrs; that the rationale of the rise of the Church. AND . To this subject of the ascension the Scriptures also speak.They had prophesied it should come. What is the meaning of the Psalmist’s language, “Thou wilt not suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption”? What is the suggestion except that He was to rise from the dead? And what is the suggestion of the same Psalmists, “Thou hast ascended on high; Thou hast led captivity captive; Thou hast received gifts”? Christ Himself had said to the officials who had been sent to take Him to the chief priest, “Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto Him that sent Me. Ye shall seek Me, and shall not find Me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come?’ (John 7:33-34).
To Mary He replied, also, “I ascend to My Father and to your Father; and to My God and to your God”. And it came to pass even as He had said.People believe far more easily in the natural than in the supernatural.
They accept the scientific with a relish they know not for the spiritual. When I was a student at college, the transit of Venus occurred. At Aiken some German scientists drew their meridian circle on a stone and took their observations from it, and then enjoined upon the people to leave that stone in place so that in the year 2004, when the transit of Venus should again occur, observations might be taken from the same meridian circle. Dr. Pierson speaking of this said, “Thrones will have been emptied of occupant after occupant; empires will have been lost; and changes, whose number and gravity are too great now to be conceived, will have taken place. Nay, human history may have come to its great last crisis and the millennial march may have begun.
Yet, punctually to the moment without delay or failure, these students of nature will expect Venus to make her transit across the sun.” They will hardly be disappointed. God’s order in nature is such that the great grandchildren of those scientists will see their forebears’ predictions fulfilled.
But God’s order in the prophecy is equally dependable. He ascended even as He had said.What a demonstration this of His Deity! John had testified after this manner, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the Word of Life, declare we unto you”. It included not only a risen Saviour but an ascended One. They had seen Him go! His ascension had been their most conclusive proof of His Deity.
A mortal man might be resuscitated from what seemed to be death; but when resurrection from the grave and ascension are combined, who can stand against the argument for Deity?Charles Spurgeon says, “Whenever I read modern thoughts, and you cannot read long without coming across them, I am glad to get back to facts. And here are some facts.
Jesus Christ did rise from the dead—that is true! He did also ascend into Heaven, for His disciples saw Him.” Is not Spurgeon’s faith well grounded? If the testimony of men can be taken touching anything that ever occurred in this world, to what fact can you bring better witnesses; witnesses more surely convinced against their expectation; witnesses more perfectly in accord with what they say; witnesses more ready to sell their testimony with their blood than were the 500 who saw Him at once, and who perhaps waited upon one of the hills of Judea and watched until the very moment when the cloud received Him out of their sight? No wonder Charles Wesley wrote:“Hail the day that sees Him rise, To His throne above the skies; Christ, the Lamb for sinners given, Enters now the highest heaven. There for Him high triumph waits; Lift your heads, eternal gates! He hath conquered death and sin, Take the King of Glory.” In that ascension is the explanation of the Church. This great institution must be accounted for. The early Apostles did not hesitate to rest their claims to the conquest of the world on the fact of the ascension. They had their commission from an ascended Lord. Their very gifts were imparted by the same ascended Lord. And in all their services they looked to Heaven from “whence also He was to come again”.Christians of the present hour who have never seen Him, yet know He is in the heavens; this with them is a matter of both history and inner consciousness.
Some one tells the story of a lad standing in the street holding tightly to a string which stretched away into the very clouds. A man passing asked him what he was doing. “Flying my kite!” The man looking into the heavens said, “How do you know that you have a kite? I see nothing.” “Neither do I,” he replied, “but I can feel it pull.” That is the universal testimony of Christ’s men and women. The great Magnet of our souls is the Son of God. Our drawings Heavenward are not natural but supernatural. They are not born of the flesh but begotten by the Son Himself, who hath ascended on high.“He is gone! and we remain In this world of sin and pain: In the void which He has left, On this earth of Him bereft, We have still His work to do, We can still His path pursue; We can follow Him below, And His bright example show.”THE OF BOTH. What of it if Christ be raised and ascended up on High? Much every way.Prominent among other things let me mention three.He then is in the priest’s place. When they stoned Stephen unto his death the record says, “He looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God”. When they banished John to the Isle of Patmos, he turned from the barren wastes about him to the bright world beyond, and oh, what a vision was vouchsafed! “In the midst of the seven golden candlesticks was one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle”. What is the significance? Priesthood!
That is the girdle the great priest wore. Hence the significance of the Apostle’s words,“Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. “For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16). He then has the power to put away sin. The old priest could do that only by Divine appointment. In fact he did not do it at all, but God did it, sending the message of remission through him. But this ascended One dares to say, “Thy sins be forgiven thee”. On what ground? Because He was the very God! Sins had been committed against Him; He, therefore, could remit them, and He only. David said, “Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned”.
The person who can forgive you is the one against whom you have sinned, and not another. How gracious to know that the One against whom we have heaped our sins is the Son of God who has ascended to the very heavens, and with Him is not only the power but the spirit of forgiveness. Truly, as Maclaren says, “In Christ’s exaltation to the throne a new hope dawns on humanity. * * This Christ Jesus has tasted death for every man, and so brethren, sad, and mad, and bad as men may be, the Conquering Captive at the right hand of God’s throne is the measure of the pattern of what the worst of us may hope to be.” Why? Because He hath power to put away sin.Again, if He be the High Priest, He proffers a free salvation. What is the message from the right hand of the throne? “I will; be thou clean”. What is the message? “Thy sins which are many are all forgiven thee”.
What is the message? “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”.Oh, marvel of marvels, that men should neglect this and run greedily after lesser good! When several years ago Dr.
Lorenz came to this country, he was brought by a millionaire of Chicago to put into place the dislocated hip of Lolita Armour. The attempt was supposed to be successful. The newspapers made a great ado about the marvelous man and his accomplishments. People went wild; his way was thronged; cripples were carried into the light of his presence; and in a southern city strong policemen wept as they were compelled to say to mothers, bearing their crippled darlings in their arms, “He cannot give you attention,” and so turn them away. Such is the enthusiasm for lesser good.I grant you it is a great thing to have a whole body. I do not blame those mothers for running after Lorenz, a mortal man of very limited power; no, I do not blame them.
But I say that men and women will rise up to blame themselves when they wake at last to discover that they have gone through the world crippled in soul, and treating with indifference the claims of that Christ in whom is “all power in Heaven and in earth” and who is as willing and able to make them every one every whit whole.Have you ever looked upon that masterpiece “Christ the Consoler” painted by Friedrich Dietrich? One strange feature about it is that he presents Christ as among the European peasants of the present day, His personality and garb contrasting with their rude figures and homely faces.
Before Him are the lame, the halt, the blind, the aged, the wounded soldiers, and the toilers, and as He passes His very presence seems to heal and enhearten, and the text for it is, “The whole multitude sought to touch Him, for there went virtue out of Him and healed them all”.Oh, will you cry the praises of a Lorenz who at best could only give one temporal aid and possibly relieve a bodily deformity, and pass with indifference the risen and ascended Christ, who, by His word, can put away sin, restore the soul to the image in which it was created, and send it forth in health and happiness for time and eternity?
For the study of Mat 28:16-20, see volume “God Hath Spoken,” published by the World’s Christian Fundamentals Association. BibleSupport.com Note: Riley is referencing the book “God Hath Spoken” and specifically his own lecture, “The Great Commission”. This is included in the Matthew 28:16-20 section of this set.
Matthew 28:16-20
BibleSupport.com Note: At the end of Matthew (see end of Mat 28:15 comments), Riley states, “For the study of Mat 28:16-20, see volume “God Hath Spoken,” published by the World’s Christian Fundamentals Association.” Riley is referencing the book “God Hath Spoken” and specifically his own lecture, “The Great Commission”. This lecture is incorporated for reference below. The publishing information for this book is: Book Name: God Hath Spoken Publisher: Bible Conference Committee Copyright Date: 1919 Chapter Excerpted: “The Great Commission”, pages 427-443 THE GREAT WM. B. RILEY, D.D. Premillennialists have been charged with neglecting the “Great Commission.” The men who bring this indictment are compelled, however, by the facts of history, to confess that we have not neglected its application; and even to admit that our outstanding men have been the most ardent advocates of missionary endeavor; our missionaries are often its most ablest exponents. The Commission itself, instead of involving difficulties of interpretation for the advocates of the “blessed hope” has ever been, and still remains, to each one of them, a marching order. Beyond all dispute, the vision of Christ was a world-vision; His plan for the church was a world-undertaking; His expectation for the kingdom was a world-conquest; and this is all signified by the Great Commission—”Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you alway even unto the end” (Matthew 28:19-20.) We quite agree with Dr. Snowden that “The Bible speaks in world terms from Genesis to The Revelation.” Jehovah is no tribal deity, but is “the God of the whole earth.” (Isaiah 54:5.) Redemption had in view no little select class or favored few, but “God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life.” The gospel was no bit of local news circulating around in Jewish villages, but is a world message. Jesus Christ was no parochial schoolmaster, but is the prophet of humanity. The kingdom of God, according to abundant and continuous testimony of Scripture, is to fill the world “from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.” (Zechariah 9:10.) We approach the interpretation of this text with no trepidation. We do not care to pass over a single point contained in it; nor do we propose that brethren who deny “the blessed hope” shall be privileged to give it a partial treatment, and at the same time convey the impression that they, and they alone, accept the Great Commission in all its fulness. What is the interpretation of this text? Unquestionably it has to do with the commission of the church; it has to do with the ceremonies of the church; and it has to do with the Christ of the church. The Commission of the Church “Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth, Go ye, therefore—.” (Matthew 2:18-20.) The command was from One of all authority and power. It was the man Christ Jesus, the very Son of God; from the One, and the only One who had a right to command. From the One whose right is recognized in heaven, from the One whose right is also recognized in hell, and whose authority covers all intervening space. When God was working special miracles by the hand of Paul, casting out evil spirits, and certain “exorcists took upon them to name over them that had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, I adjure thee by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. * * * The man in whom the evil spirit was, answered, Paul I know and Christ I know, but whence are ye? And he leaped on them, and mastered both of them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.” His authority is recognized in hell! When the man who had the legion of devils, was in His presence, they called out, “Why hast thou come to torment us before our time?” “All authority and all power!” It is His to command, for Christ is “the Lord of both the dead and the living.” (Romans 14:9.) “When God raised him from the dead and placed him at his right hand in heavenly places, far above all rule and authority, and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” (Ephesians 1:20-23.) If, therefore, I am a member of “the church—His body”—He has as much right to command me as my brain has a right to command the action of my hand, the movement of my feet, or the utterance of my lips. This commission was unto the men who knew Him best and loved Him most. Have we noted the phraseology of it? “The eleven disciples went into Galilee unto the mount where Jesus had appointed, and whey they saw Him they worshipped Him, and Jesus came to them and spake unto them saying, * * * *” There is a real reason for calling them “disciples” here, instead of “apostles.” The theory of a verbal inspiration of the Book make the use of that name significant in the last degree. He commissioned “disciples,” not apostles only; and yet He gave that commission originally to the eleven who knew Him best, and to the eleven who loved Him most. With them He made His beginning and in them He rested His dependance, and it is an ensample of the Christ-method. He could never trust His ministry in the world to men and women who were not devoted to Him; and He could never expect the carrying of His gospel to the ends of the earth, over sea and land, in spite of all dangers and hardships and even death, of others than those who loved Him ardently, and who yielded themselves to be obedient to His will. In old Virginia, a lad sat in a meeting addressed in the interest of missions, and watched them take up an offering to send the knowledge of Christ to foreign lands. The box returned and the contents were counted.
In the subscriptions they found a card written, “I give myself.” Inquiry was made as to who had signed it, and from the rear of the room a young man arose, with blushing face, and said, “I did. It is all I have to give!” It was John Lewis Shuck, who later went away to China, and who was so blessed of God that he laid the foundations of the Southern Baptist Convention work in foreign missions. That is the first offering God wants—the offering of “self.” It is only because our missionaries have been such devoted men and women that we have shot light into the heart of darkest Africa, into the heart of blinded India, into the heart of bigoted Japan, that we have seen the cannibals of the great islands converted into the world’s most ardent Christians. Think of Alexander Duff as an illustration. He had given his whole life to India, and as an old man he stood in Edinburgh and for two hours and a half he held his listeners spell-bound as he told the story of trials and hardships and conquests. Then he fainted and was carried from the hall. When he came to himself, he asked, “Where am I? What was I doing?
Oh, yes; Take me back and let me finish my speech!” “You will kill yourself if you do,” exclaimed his friends. “I shall die if I do not!” And so they carried him back. The whole audience arose, men and women sobbing. He was unable to stand, but sat down, and said, “Fathers of Scotland, have you any more sons to send to India? I have spent my life there, and my life has gone, but if there are no young men to go, I will go back myself and lay my bones there, and let the people know that there is one man in Christian Britain who is ready to die for India!” Such have been the men unto whose hearts and hands Christ has committed His commission. And yet, lest men should conclude that only great apostles had obligations in this matter, the Bible names the men who received the commission “disciples” and not “apostles,” and we agree with the eminent writer who said, “As all the disciples of Christ are required to take a part in the propagation of His Gospel throughout the world, those who remain at home are bound to sustain and minister to those who go abroad, just as much as citizens in civil life are bound to support their fellow-countrymen who go forth as soldiers to fight their country’s battles.” We confess to an increasing amazement that there are so many more Christian young men in the world who are willing to don the uniform of the soldier or sailor and go out for their country to battles of blood, than there are young men in the church willing to go out for the church of God, to wear the livery of heaven and conquer heathenism by “the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, loving not their lives unto the death.” Dr. Joseph Clark, from Africa, speaking of the Soudan, said, “It is only a short time ago that there was a great massacre of the Christians there. A woman came by steamer out of that country, and on her way out passed the ‘Electa,’ the largest man-of-war on the coast. It had aboard three hundred soldiers. They were going to the rescue of the Christians, and looked to the Christian woman like an angelic host. As the steamer passed in the narrows she noticed that every eye was upon her, and the soldiers took off their helmets and saluted and bowed.
She wondered why she was paid such court. Yet, looking about her she saw that she was the only white woman in the midst of black faces, and the soldiers knew that they were looking into the face of one in whose defence they had come, and if need be they would die.’ And she said, ‘Can it be possible that those three hundred boys are facing these perils simply for the sake of the salary and loyalty to the Queen?’ No wonder she added, ‘Why are not more young men coming with loyalty to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, to do battle, not with heathen nor Mohammedans, but with falsehood and sin, not that men might die in a pool of their own blood, but that they might taste the bread of heaven and be cleansed by the blood of the Lamb?’ ” His commission was unto every nation under heaven. “All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations.” To say that this was a commission to Jews alone is not only to strain the meaning of Scripture, but it is to destroy the meaning of speech, “All the nations” is a phrase which is always applicable to Gentiles; whereas, “a nation” “the nation” is the very language of the Word of God in description of Israel. When Isaiah says (Isaiah 1:4): “Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity,” he means Israel; but when in Isaiah 2:2 he says: “It shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountains of Jehovah’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it,” he sweeps the Gentile world into his vision and promise. When again he writes: “Thou hast increased the nation, O Jehovah, thou art glorified; thou hast enlarged all the borders of the land,” he speaks of Israel. But when he says, “So shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion,” he refers to the great Gentile world. Jeremiah distinguished with equal clearness between “the nation” and “the nations.” So do Ezekial, and Daniel, and, for that matter, every minor prophet from Hosea to Malachi.
But, as if the New Testament meant on its own account, to put this matter past all possible dispute, read Mark’s report of the great commission itself (Mark 16:15). “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned.” “The whole creation” certainly compasses the entire world! To contend, therefore, that that thought never was in the commission is not only to contort the New, but to forget the Old Testament. Abraham was a missionary to the Canaan Gentiles; Joseph was a missionary to the Egyptian Gentiles; Jonah was a missionary to the Assyrian Gentiles. In truth, there has never been an hour since Abraham was called in which God has not made provision for the redemption of the Gentiles who might accept Jehovah, and yield themselves to walk according to His precepts. “The Lamb slain form the foundation of the world” was “slain for the Jew first; but also for the Gentile.” Paul preached no new gospel as he himself declared, but preached unto them “that which he had also received.” And when Cephas came with those Jewish heresies Paul resisted him to his face for his Judaizing interpretation of the Word of God; and separated from Barnabas because he was carried away with their dissimulation. The earnest of all of this was in the ministry of Jesus Himself also. Have we forgotten how, when Jesus heard that John was delivered up, He withdrew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying: “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, toward the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people that sat in darkness saw a great light.” What was Christ doing there? Simply taking seizen of His belongings. We are told that when William the Conqueror first went ashore on the coast of England he stumbled and fell. This was thought by his followers to be an ill omen. But grappling both hands full of sand, he held them aloft and cried: “I have taken seizen of my kingdom in England.” We do not belong to that company who expect ever to see the kingdom brought about by missionary operations. Our understanding of this text is that we are to “make disciples of (or out of) all nations,” that such become the “ecclesia” or the “called out” company!
With this agrees perfectly James’ great deliverance. “Men and brethren, hearken unto me: Simeon hath declared how God, at the first, did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written; After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down, and I will build again the ruins thereof and I will set it up; that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called saith the Lord, who doeth all things.” (Acts 15:13-16.) Our obligation is not to bring the kingdom in; God will “set it up,” but it is ours to carry the gospel out; out to every East Indian, out to every Chinaman, out to every African, out to every Japanese, out to every South Sea Islander. Livingstone said a remarkable thing, “The end of discovery is the beginning of missions.” He might have added, the end of discovery is also the territory of missions. As long as another continent or island can be found and another people sit in darkness, knowing not the truth, the obligation of the church remains, since to “all creation” is His commission. God give to those of us who feel it is the divine will that we should remain in this country, a worldwide view and implant in our breasts a passion for worldwide evangelism, that we may have within ourselves the proof of our discipleship; and be the company of those to whom the poet addressed the words: “Once the welcome light has broken, Who shall say What the unimagined glories Of the day;What the evil that shall perish In its ray?Men of thought and men of action, Clear the way!” But from the Commission of the Church we pass to The Ceremonies of the Church.“Go, ye therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” A disciple’s baptism is an essential ceremony. Paul tells us its meaning. In writing to the Romans (Romans 6:4-5) he says: “We are buried therefore with Him through baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” The significance of this ceremony can never be so fully felt in the Christian world as it is in the heathen. Some time since we looked upon a stereopticon view of a missionary baptizing natives of the Congo Free State. Here were men who had been thieves and liars and murderers, guilty of all forms of fornication and adultery; and women who were their matches in sin, and boys and girls born and bred to the same; and now they were being baptized. What did it mean to them? Not an Easter performance merely; not an occasion of appearing in a white dress or any other uniform; not the celebration of a ceremony at such a time and place as to attract the attention of the public and excite favorable press comment. It meant cessation from the life of sin in its various and awful phases; it meant burial with the Man who went beneath the flood for our sakes; it meant resurrection to walk in newness of life with Him.
And that meaning was further illustrated as we followed those converts from the pool to the daily practice of Christian precepts. Ah, beautiful ceremony! Ah, marvelous change! Ah, glorious prospect of clean, wholesome, consecrated lives! Beddome was contemplating this act when he wrote the lines: “Witness ye men and angels now, Before the Lord we speak;To Him we make our solemn vow,A vow we dare not break. That, long as life itself shall last, Ourselves to Christ we yield;Nor from His cause will we depart, Or ever quit the field.” The Lord’s Supper was a second essential ceremony. “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” He had commanded it! “This do in remembrance of me!” We have teachers among us now who tell us that it was a Judaizing rite, and was not intended to continue indefinitely. Perhaps not; but the Word of the Lord is plain as to how long it shall continue, “As oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord’s death, till He come.” And so long shall it remain—”till He come.” We have little doubt that He will celebrate it in person with His own; and that the significance of it will be better understood when He again, with His pierced hand, shall break the bread and pass the cup, than it has ever been in all the ages. Do we not remember how on that night before Jesus was crucified, as they were eating, He took the bread and blest and brake it, and said, “Eat, this is my body which was broken for you; and he took the cup likewise, saying, Drink ye all of it, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many unto remission of sins. But I say unto you, I shall not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until the day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” It is a significant suggestion. “Till He come,” and the saints shall “be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.” In that festal hour when bride and bridegroom shall know the communion of love, the table about which they will gather will not be a feast of the flesh, for our bodies will not be carnal, sold under sin, but “spiritual bodies” instead; and it will be a feast of affection when the Lord’s Supper shall once more, and perhaps finally be celebrated; and its full meaning shall then be understood, and voiced in the notes of those who “Sing the Song of Moses and Lamb.”Think of the relationship that this ordinance sustains to foreign missions. Think of the meaning of the Lord’s Supper, as men and women, recently converted from besotting sins, sit, white-souled before the holy communion and remind themselves of the fact that they were purchased not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, symbolized in the cup, and they were redeemed not by the offering of a man, but by the broken body of the very Son of God. If such doctrines will not hold natives to their newly found faith, then salvation from sin can never be accomplished, and sanctification of spirit is an impossibility.
But it does hold! And they who are washed with the very blood of the Son of God are careful not to stain themselves afresh; and they who are bought with the broken body of Christ are solicitous to keep themselves busy for Him “till He come!” The Word of the Lord is a warrant for both. “The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” It is vain, therefore, that men speak against them. Like the ointment brought by the woman for the anointing of Jesus, wherever this gospel shall be preached, it shall be a memorial; and the gospel of Jesus Christ without these memorials of salvation and surrender, would not be a complete gospel, nor a sufficient one! We “deliver then, that which we have also received,” how that Christ was baptized by John in Jordan, and therein has set us an example, that we should repent everyone and be baptized in His name, and how that He took bread and blessed and brake it, and gave it to His disciples, passing the cup after the same manner, saying, “This do in remembrance of me,” and “till I come.” Every celebration of the Lord’s Supper is a beautiful reminder of that “blessed hope.”Ah, significant ceremonies they are; and a wonderful gospel it is, and the wonder of it all is not so much the commission given, and the ceremonies appointed, as it is in The Christ of the Church. “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,” or, if you prefer, “the consummation of the age.” He is infinite in power. Aye, with Him is “all authority and all power.” The missionary can depend on Him. When a Congo missionary saw the savages coming to take his life he could depend upon this One of “all power,” whose breath was a storm upon the lake by which their vessels were driven on the beach and their endeavors baffled. When Stanley, in the heart of Africa, was starving, the God of all power could cause the fat bird to fall in the very midst of the little famished company—and He did! When in Turkey the Sultan decided every missionary must go, the missionary said: “But the Sultan of the missionary can change this order.” He knew the Christ of his marching order. Oh, it is good to know that He is back of the men and the women on the fields, and it is good to believe that when the young men and the young women of a church rise out of her midst to go to the regions beyond, this Christ of infinite power will surely go with them. He was, and is, ubiquitous in person. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Lo, I am with you alway.” And, by implication, “everywhere,” as well as at every time. He, like His Father, filleth all space. There is no whither we can go from His Spirit or flee from His presence! “If we ascend up into heaven, He is there. If we make our bed in Sheol, behold He is there; if we take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there His hand shall lead us, and His right hand shall hold us; and if we come under the cover of darkness, even the darkness hideth not from Him; and the night, by His presence, is made to shine as the day.” We are told that Nicholas Hermann, who is known as Brother Lawrence, “practiced the presence of God.” It ought not to be impossible, for Christ by His Spirit is everywhere present. Creasy, in “Decisive Battles,” speaks of Waterloo and tells of the time in that awful struggle when the pressure on the British line was insufferably severe, particularly on Halkett’s brigade, in the right center, where were compressed the battalions of the sixty-ninth and seventy-third British regiments. An officer, writing of the experience, says: “The glow which fires one upon entering into action had ceased. It was now to be seen which side had most bottom, and would stand killing longest. The duke visited us frequently at this momentous period; he was coolness personified. As he crossed the rear face of our square, a shell fell amongst our grenadiers, and he checked his horse to see its effect. Some men were blown to pieces by the explosion, and he merely stirred the rein of his charger, apparently as little concerned at their fate as at his own danger.
No leader ever possessed so fully the confidence of his soldiery; wherever he appeared, a murmur of silence —’Stand to your front! Here’s the Duke!’ was heard through the column, and then all was steady as on parade. His aides-de-camp, Colonels Canning and Gordon, fell near our square, and the former died within it. As he came near us late in the evening, Halkett rode out to him and represented our weak state, begging his Grace to afford us a little support. ‘It is impossible, Halkett!’ said he. And our General replied, ‘If so, you may depend upon this brigade to a man!’ For the Duke they were willing to die. His presence in their midst incited to any amount of courage and to any possible or conceivable sacrifice.” So it should be with the soldier of the cross in the presence of Christ.
It is ours to stand to our guns. God forbid that we should fail Him in the hour when the battle is heavy and the need is as sore as it is on every mission field at this minute. He is never failing in presence. The exact language of the text is, “Lo, I am with you alway,” or, literally translated, “all the days.” All the days! All the dark days as surely as all the bright days—Christ is with the host who are executing His commission, even unto the consummation of the age—all the days. He was with Judson in the dark days before there came a convert out of India; He was with him in the dark nights when he languished in prison, in the hours when he walked in the valley of the shadow of death. He was with Henry Richards those long seven years in Banza Manteke when never a convert in answer to his gospel was seen. Men said He was not, but it was a lie!
He was with him. It is within my lifetime, and within yours, if you are in middle life, that Richards stood there empty-handed and sorry-hearted and wondered what it meant—God’s commission ringing in his ears and God’s Word passing his lips, and no result.
The night was black and the day itself was in deep cloud. And yet God was with him. Today on that same ground more than two thousand church members gather, their dark faces revealing white souls, because God was with Richards. He was with Clough when it did not appear, as well as when the first Telegu convert came. He was with Yates at Caifu when that great man of God found that he was smitten with an abscess that might cut off his life; and He was with him in all the dark days that followed. Such men we need, for with them is the Christ of eternity, always unto “the consummation of the age,” or until the millennium come, and He returns in person to preside over all.
He was in that conference in America when “Why continue this mission?” was the question being debated. Ten years of work, and two Telegu converts, and the missionaries all at home, sick.
But Mr. Day plead the promises of God and his own heart’s pity, and so did Rev. Mr. Sutton. It was decided to put off the decision. In the meeting one had spoken of the Telegu station as “The Lone Star Mission,” and that night the great Dr. Smith, whose heart had been stirred and sympathies roused by the symbolism, went home and wrote the poem which he read next morning at the breakfast table. Shine on, “Lone Star!” Thy radiance bright Shall spread o’er all the eastern sky;Morn breaks apace from gloom and night; Shine on, and bless the pilgrim’s eye.Shine on, “Lone Star!” I would not dim The light that gleams with dubious ray;The lonely star of Bethlehem Led on a bright and glorious day.Shine on, “Lone Star!” in grief and tears, And sad reverses oft baptized;Shine on amid thy sister spheres; Lone stars in heaven are not despised.Shine on, “Lone Star!” Who lifts his hand To dash to earth so bright a gem,A new “lost pleiad” from the band That sparkles in night’s diadem?Shine on, “Lone Star!” The day draws near When none shall shine more fair than thou;Thou, born and nursed in doubt and fear, Wilt glitter on Immanuel’s brow.Shine on, “Lone Star!” till earth redeemed, In dust shall bid its idols fall;And thousands, where thy radiance beamed, Shall “crown the Saviour Lord of all.” Now it is the most glorious station in the whole galaxy of missions; and the reason of it is that the Christ who said, “Lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the consummation of the age,” has made good His word there, as He was wherever missionaries have wrought and put their trust in Him. He who is keeping His promise of presence with the missionaries at work on heathen fields, will also keep his promise to millennialists who watch for His revelation from Heaven and work while they “wait.”