We begin today a new series of studies that will be entitled “Things I Had to Learn When I First Surrendered to Preach”. These are for the young preachers—not necessarily young in age but rather in experience.
“Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you” (John 20:21).
“We believe that Jesus Christ gave the New Testament church as an institution a world-wide and age-lasting commission in Matthew 28:19-20 to evangelize, baptize, and catechize; that the gospel is to be preached to every creature; that men and women everywhere are responsible to repent; and the heathen without the gospel are lost and will be judged by the light of nature and conscience; this it is the responsibility of every New Testament Baptist Church to go forth and organize new churches of like faith and order; that it is the duty of every church to support missionaries who are sent out by the authority of an assembly of scripturally baptized believers, who meet the Bible qualifications of a missionary; who furnish a doctrinal statement, and disclosure of how mission funds are used, as they are directed by the Spirit of God and the majority vote of the whole congregation,” [Berea Baptist Church of Mantachie MS, Articles of Faith page 5, Article 11. This writer pastored there from 2020-2023].
SENDING WITH PROPER AUTHROITY
We see from our text that Jesus was a missionary to the elect of God. The word missionary implies someone being sent on a specific mission by an authority. Jesus models that perfectly for us as He appears behind closed doors to His disciples and declares (in this order) the nature of His coming, the authority for His coming, and the purpose of His coming.
Jesus was sent unto the world as the Way of Salvation. This was the general purpose for His coming. To see to the perpetuity of this mission He built His church. As He was, the church was to be also. It was local, visible and had the proper authority for which to perform the work she had been given and, being as His bride, she was to honor her Bridegroom every step of the way. That work was detailed in what we call the “Great Commission”, and we see it delivered once in Matthew 28:19-20 “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. Amen.” Even in this delivery the Lord Jesus does not fail to demonstrate the authority for which He was sent: “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matt. 28:18).
As Jesus had declared, “…as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” We see here then a select group of people who had been quickened with a purpose and that they had been also equipped as the Lord breathed upon them the Holy Spirit there in John 20:23. In that verse the Lord also confirms the field for which they are being sent, that being the world of sin.
This then is the sending authority for born-again believers and we see it demonstrated for us in Acts 13:1-4 “Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus.” Here a great missionary work begins, Paul being possibly the greatest earthly missionary the world has ever seen, but it does not start without the proper authority. Note that the commission to go came through the Holy Spirit and that His message to send missionaries was first delivered to the local, visible church at Antioch. After receiving their mission, the church prayed and fasted…seeking the full will of the Lord, then they, too, gave authority and commissioned Saul and Barnabas to the work for which they had been called.
SERVING WITH PROPER PEACE
Missionaries are not sent to overtake the world for Jesus and the gospel. They were evangelistic but not violent; they were zealous for the work of spreading the gospel, but they trusted that it would be God Who provided the increase. “I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:14-17). I believe we see this modeled in the early ministry of Christ as He heals those possessed of demons, even sparing the demons rather than casting forth His sovereign judgment on them. They shall not escape His sight but the message He was commissioned to deliver during His earthly ministry was that of a hope for the repentant…which can only be received through peace.
We are commanded to water and plant, even to weed in some circumstances, but in the end to trust the increase to God! After writing of the two-handed commitment required to follow after Jesus in chapter 9, Dr. Luke gives us a depiction of the Lord, with proper authority, sending a missionary group out with the purpose of informing sinners that “The Kingdom of God is come nigh”: “After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way. And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again. And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you: And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell. He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me” (Luke 10:1-16).
Let us note how they were sent as “lambs among wolves” and they were to bear the message of “Peace be to this house” as they entered. What was the message that they brought? Was it not that an eternal rest was being made possible through the Messiah? They did not yet know precisely how it would be made possible, but they knew of the authority that had promised it and they were to take His message to the world! In this instruction they were not called to take anything for Christ. They were even to leave the dust (curse of death Gen 3:19) from their persons as a mark against them. They were commanded, as missionaries, to go in peace with the same message John had preached in the wilderness, “...Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2).
SAVING WITH PROPER POWER
The gospel comprises the full story of our deliverance which begins with the death and burial of Jesus (dealing with our flesh once and for all) and concludes with His resurrection (which is the imputation of His victory upon us). “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? -- The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Cor. 15:50-57).
This is the gospel message that we have been commissioned to share in peace. Let us, with this final point, consider a parable: “...Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt. 13:3-9). We see then that, though we are sharing a powerful message, the power is not ours to control. The proper power of the gospel is that salvation is in the hands of God!
Should this derail our message? Does it cause doubt for us to confess that we know not who will be saved? To answer this, we must again remind ourselves of Whom it is we preach…that is Christ Jesus our Lord! “Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Acts 17:22-31).
This is our gospel then, a declaration of God and the mercy He has chosen to share with His elect through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. Of Whom I declare unto you today as the only Way of Salvation. It is therefore not the fear of being left in our sinful states but the hope of being born-again that we preach. Our own works of faith and walks of righteousness should speak as our missionary banners to the One Who has made it possible and through such should God be glorified. “…Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
Our conclusion is that each point is dependent on the rest: “…if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things” (Rom. 10:9-15). We see here again the missionaries need to go, in peace, unto all the nations “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I [Jesus (as our authority) has] ...commanded...”