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Man, let's start out tonight in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Title of my sermon tonight is four great commissions. Four great commissions. Now, in a sense, there's only one great commission that is to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, but the reason why the sermon is called four great commissions is because I'm going to show you tonight that Jesus Christ gave the great commission to his disciples on at least four different occasions. You see, we tend to think sometimes of Jesus as just coming to the disciples maybe one time or two times, telling them to go preach the gospel, and then ascending up into heaven. But in fact, he was actually seen of them for 40 days. He appeared to them many different times, and if you just casually read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you could sometimes get the wrong idea that he only appeared unto them once or maybe twice, but that's simply because each gospel is only recording certain events, and it's leaving out a lot of other events because the different four gospels emphasize different things, and Jesus appeared to the disciples multiple times over the course of those 40 days, and different of the four gospels are just focusing on different appearances. But I'm going to show you tonight that Jesus Christ on four separate occasions strongly commissioned the disciples to go preach the gospel, to go into all the world, to go teach all nations. While you're turning there to 1 Corinthians 15, I'm going to read for you from Acts 1. The Bible says, The former treatise of I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after that he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them 40 days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. So it was 40 days that Jesus appeared to the disciples and gave them commandments, and one of the things that he kept emphasizing with them over and over again was the Great Commission, and we have record of at least four different occasions of that. Look down at your Bible there in 1 Corinthians 15. The Bible says in verse 4, And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, referring to Jesus, and that he was seen of Cephas, Simon Peter, and 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. So no, you did not see him last week. Last of all, he said, he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time, for I am the least of the apostles, and am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. So the Bible explains that the resurrected Christ was not seen by all the people, but unto witnesses that were before chosen to see him, over five hundred people that saw him after he rose from the dead, and last of all he was seen of Paul. Paul was that last apostle that was as one born out of due time, the late comer as an apostle. There are no apostles on this earth today, because they have not seen the resurrected Christ, they are not witnesses of that, and not only that, but when they were choosing a replacement apostle for Judas, he had to begin from the baptism of John, and to go up to that point, and so forth. So today we don't have apostles living on this earth, and the next time anybody sees the resurrected Jesus Christ is when every eye sees him, when he comes in the clouds when he returns. Now if you would flip over in your Bible to John chapter 20, and I'm going to show you the first time that Jesus gives the great commission to the disciples. Now a lot of times people become confused about the events after the resurrection of Christ, because they don't realize just how many times he appeared to them, and in how many different places, and how many different things he said. So they'll try to say it's a contradiction, like well here it says he was there, and here it says he was over here. Well he's in both places, because it happened over the course of 40 days, and if you were to write down all the things that Jesus Christ did, even the whole world itself couldn't contain all the books that should be written in that case. So how do we know that Jesus gave the great commission on four separate occasions? Well here's how we know that, because there are three different locations, and he did it twice at one of those locations. Okay these are the locations. The one that we think of is Jesus Christ on the Mount of Olives ascending up to heaven, right? When he tells them, ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. We think of him giving that great commission, his last commandment to his disciples, and then he ascends up to heaven and a cloud receives him out of their sight. That's the event that we would probably think of as when Jesus gave the great commission right before he ascended up to heaven, right? On what mount? The Mount of Olives, which is where? It's from Jerusalem about a Sabbath day's journey. It's very close to Jerusalem, but what you have to understand is that in Matthew 28, even though it would be easy to read that and to think to yourself, oh this is the same event because he's taken his disciples up on a mountain and giving them the great commission, what you have to understand is that that mountain is in Galilee. He goes to a specific mount in Galilee in Matthew 28, and Galilee is nowhere near Jerusalem. It's at least probably 60 miles away, you know, if you think about traveling there on foot, 60 miles away. It's a completely different region because Jerusalem's in Judea and then Galilee is separate from that, and remember there's even a state in between the two. So it's, you know, a good 60 some miles away. So that's a completely different location. So when we see Jesus giving the great commission in Matthew 28 on a mountain in Galilee, that's not the same event as when he's on the Mount of Olives. Okay, but not only that, when we look at Mark chapter 16, which we just read, it said that when he told them to go preach, to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, it said that he appeared to them when they sat at meat. So they're not on top of a mountain there. They're where? Sitting down, eating food. So that's a completely different instance. And in fact, we have Jesus Christ appearing to disciples two different times when they're assembled together indoors with the doors shut. The first time when Thomas is not there and the second time when Thomas is there. So we have four different events here. Now, if we were to count up all the appearances that Christ made, we'd have a lot more than four. Then we might get up to 10, 11 times that he's appearing to them. But that's not what we're talking about. We're only talking about the times that he gave them the Great Commission, right? Four different incidents where he gave them the Great Commission to go and preach the gospel to all the world. All four gospels give us this commission. They all record the fact that Christ sent them and is sending us to go out and get people saved. So let's do it in chronological order. The first time Christ gave the Great Commission would be the very day that he rose from the dead. That very evening, he meets up with the disciples. Let's read it in John chapter 20. This is the same day that he rose from the dead. Verse 19. John 20 verse 19. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst and said unto them, peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, peace be unto you, as my Father had sent me, even so send I you. Now there's another parallel passage where he's going to give an even stronger Great Commission, but this right there is the Great Commission. He's saying as the Father sent me, so send I you. Now how is that the Great Commission? Well, earlier in the book of John, don't turn there, but in John 3 17 it said for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. So why did the Father send the son into the world? That the world through him might be saved. And as the Father sent him, he's sending us to do what? To do the same thing. To bring salvation to a lost and dying world. We're not sent to condemn the world. They're condemned already. We're sent that the world might be saved by us pointing people to Jesus Christ, preaching the gospel of Christ. It said in 1 John chapter 4 14, and we've seen and do testify that the Father sent the son to be the savior of the world. Matthew 18 11, for the son of man is come to save that which was lost. Luke 19 10, for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Why did Jesus come? To seek and to save that which was lost. Why was he sent? To be the savior of the world. To save the world. Not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And would to God that we would be sent out the same way that Christ was sent, that the world through us might be saved. Through the gospel of Jesus Christ that we're preaching. Now, don't get this attitude that says, oh, how dare you say that we're sent to save people. Only Jesus can save. You know what? That's true. Without him, we can do nothing. But you know what? God uses us to save people, period. And you know, if you're offended by that, I don't care, because the Bible says over and over again, it uses that wording. Paul said, I've become all things to all men that by all means I might save some of them. He said, if by any means I might provoke to emulation them that are of my flesh and might save some of them. Jude said, others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire. The Bible says to a Christian lady who's married to an unsaved husband, how do you know? And I'm paraphrasing, but he said, if you'll save your husband. You know, how knowest thou if thou shalt save thy husband? You don't know. Why? Because when we preach the gospel, we're saving people. We're saving people. That doesn't mean that we're the savior. We know Jesus is the savior. But guess what? It takes us and Jesus to get people saved. Say, oh, Jesus will do it on his own. Okay, then you go sit on your lazy behind while Jesus does it all on his own. Is that what the Bible teaches? No. Jesus said, as long as I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world. But he looks at us and says, you're the light of the world. You're the light of the world. Hey, God has committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation, and we beseech the lost in Christ's stead, in God's stead. Look, we stand there as a representative of Jesus Christ saying, be ye reconciled to God. And these over spiritual, hyper spiritual, uber spiritual Calvinist types. Oh, how, you know, we need to understand that it's God that saves. It's Jesus that saves. And we don't save anybody. Yeah, I know you don't. I could have told you that. But we at Faithful Word Baptist Church actually do. We do. That's what the Bible says. And you say, oh, you're so proud. No, no, no. The prideful one is the one that sits back in his comfortable chair and criticizes the people who are actually doing the real work. That's pride. That's arrogance. When one won't recognize real work that's being done and picks it apart and says, well, I don't like the way you said that when you said we got people saved. Okay, you're right. You're right. Saying we got people saved is unscriptural. Let's use a more scriptural lingo. Hey, we saved people. You like that better? I didn't think so. The Bible uses even stronger term of saying we saved them. Let's go save them. But then people get queasy about you saying we got them saved. The only people who get upset about that are people who don't do any soul saving. They don't do any soul winning. Oh, we don't win souls. That's Jesus's job. Yeah, we know you think that. That's why you sit around so much and let the world go to hell. Well, some of us are out there getting in the yoke with Jesus, working together with Jesus Christ to get people saved. Okay. Yeah, he did the hardest part when he died on the cross, was buried and rose again. But we have a part too. And you know what our part is to be that messenger to bring the gospel, to bring the good news of salvation. And you know what? Without us, people aren't going to get saved, period. People will. If our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. If we don't go, they're going to hell. And people don't like that because they're not going. So then they want to come up with all this weird doctrine of, well, you know, it's not really us. And if people are really going to get saved, they're going to get saved. No, no, no. That guy over in Africa is not going to get saved unless somebody goes and brings him the gospel. Somebody's got to make a sacrifice. Somebody's going to have to pay for that. Somebody's going to have to take their time and energy and effort and go over there and do that. And, you know, it comes to these Indian reservations, which is like a mission field right here at home in Arizona. A lot of people that have not been well evangelized. You know what? If we don't take those people to the gospel, then pray tell me who's going to. Well, if they're going to get saved, they're going to get saved anyway. That's garbage. That's a false doctrine. If our gospel is hid, well, it's okay because they're going to get saved anyway. No, no. If our gospel is hid, it's hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not. And so we need to get out there and be a part of this great commission as the Father sent Christ. What did he send him? To be the Savior of the world. To save the world. Christ is sending us to bring salvation. To point people to Jesus Christ. To be an ambassador of Christ and to point people to salvation. And so that's the great commission right there. Let me give it to you one more time. As my Father has sent me, even so send I you. That's the great commission. The first time it's delivered chronologically. Let's go to Luke 24 and we'll see a parallel account. You say, how do you know this is a parallel account? Well, because it happens on the exact same day. Because if you read Luke 24 and you read John 20, the Bible is really clear that this happened the same day. It makes that clear. So therefore, these have to be the same event. Now we talked a little bit about Luke 24 this morning when we talked about the two disciples. And these are not of the 12 disciples. These are just other believers, other Christians. And they were on that road to Emmaus and Christ appeared to them and their hearts burned within them as he spoke to them in the scriptures, right? Well, after those guys have that encounter with Jesus Christ, they head over to Jerusalem and they want to tell the disciples about it. So that's what they do here in Luke 24. And let me turn there myself because I don't have enough in my notes here. But it says in verse number 18, no, I'm sorry, let me jump down. I put the wrong verse in my notes here. It says in verse number 32, they said one to another, did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while he opened us the scriptures. And they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem. So they get straight up from the table the same hour and they head for Jerusalem and they found the 11 gathered together and them that were with them saying, the Lord is risen indeed and has appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way and how he was known of them in breaking of bread. And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and saith unto them, peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted and suppose that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, why are you troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me to have. Jump down to verse 44. And he said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you and that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures and said unto them, thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. And that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold I send the promise of my father upon you. But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until you've been endued with power from on high. So what we see here in Luke 24 is that the same day that Christ rose from the dead is when he appeared unto those guys on the road to Emmaus. If you read the whole chapter, that's crystal clear. And then those guys from Emmaus, they come and tell the disciples. And when they come and tell them, Christ appears to all of them again. And he gives them the Great Commission. This is a parallel passage with John 20 because they're both taking place on the same evening. They're both taking place indoors. And you can easily synchronize these two accounts. And you can easily synthesize these together as being the same event. They both took place in the same event. So in the same session when Christ told them, As my father hath sent me, so send I you. In that same session he said unto them, in verse number 47, That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations. So there's your Great Commission. As the Father sent me, so send I you. Let me ask this. Did the Father send him to be the Savior of the Jews or the whole world? The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, right? God sent not his Son to the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. So notice the Great Commission, it's always worldwide, right? So in John, the first time it's given, he says, Hey, as my Father sent me, so send I you. We can read between the lines and say that's the world. Jesus was sent to save the world. But then it's more specific here. It's the same event, same day, same evening, same place. He says to them that it will be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. So not ending at Jerusalem as a lot of them actually ended up doing. No, he said beginning at Jerusalem. You need to take this to the whole world. Okay, now it says that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations. Now let me stop for a moment and talk about repentance. What does he mean there by repentance? Well, repentance can mean multiple things in the Bible. Repentance is a pretty broad word because repent just simply means to turn or to change. So in order to know what is being turned from or what is being turned to or what kind of a change is being made, you have to look at the context, right? Because if I just said to somebody, turn. There's no context. If I just said, Dominique, turn. He doesn't know what I mean. You know what? What's that supposed to be, right? Or what if I just said, change? You know what I'm talking about, change. I want you to change. You know what you have to do to be saved? You've got to change. You've got to turn. I mean, turn from what? Change what, right? Without context, the word repentance doesn't really mean anything. That word can't just exist in a vacuum. Just turn, repent. Even the word believe can't just exist in a vacuum because the question is, believe what? Or believe on whom? So that's a question there, right? So we have to use a context. Now, the definition of repent is to change or to turn, okay? The definition isn't the problem. The problem is, what are we turning from or what are we turning to? And that has to be determined by context. Now, a lot of people just want to paint with this broad brush and say, oh, repent. Well, that means turn from your sin. Well, here they've added something there from your sin. They've added that because repent can't mean turn from your sin. It has to just mean turn because of the fact that we see sometimes people are doing something good and then they repent in the Bible. So repentance can be a bad thing. I mean, if you're doing great and then you repent and you change and you turn away from that, that's a bad repentance. Or when God repents, obviously, he doesn't have any sins. So God's not turning from his sin. So you always have to look at the context to figure out what is being repented of or what the repentance is, okay? So a lot of times in the Bible, people are being told to repent of a sin or wickedness or something bad that they're doing. Other times in the Bible, people are told to repent of worshiping idols or worshiping false gods or believing in false doctrine. People are told to repent of rejecting Christ in certain places. He said, hey, you know, you rejected the Holy One. You crucified Christ, repent. You know, that's what they need to change. Now, when it comes to getting saved, when it comes to getting into heaven, the one thing that we have to repent from is just whatever it is that we're trusting in besides Christ. You know, so let's say I'm a Hindu. I can't be both a Hindu and a Christian. I'm going to have to repent of Hinduism in order to receive Christ as Savior because I have to believe on Christ with all my heart. I can't believe in both. A Buddhist is going to have to turn from Buddhism. A Catholic is going to have to turn from Catholicism. A Muslim is going to have to turn from Islam. An atheist is going to have to turn from atheism. An agnostic is going to have to turn from agnosticism. A person who believes that God is a little statue that they pour milk on and pour honey on and bow down to, that's going to have to change. Right? They're going to have to repent from idols and turn to the living, true God. But when you sit there and say, well, the drunk has to repent of being drunk, now you're teaching work salvation because that has nothing to do with their belief in Christ. It's nothing to do with their faith. That has to do with their works. That has to do with their deeds, their lifestyle. So anytime somebody's telling you, hey, you have to repent of this sin or repent of that sin, that's a works-based salvation. Now if somebody's telling you, hey, you have to repent from a false belief, a false gospel, a false God, a false religion, that makes sense. Why? Because how can you believe on Christ when you're believing on something else? So is it possible to preach the gospel without even bringing up repentance? Absolutely. All day long. Because if you tell somebody that the one thing they must do to be saved is to put all of their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, they don't need to hear about repentance. Because if you just finish telling them that they have to put all their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, then it's pretty clear that they're going to have to get rid of the Hinduism or whatever else they're trusting in or their own deeds. A lot of people need to repent from their own works that they think are saving them. Or repent from their false doctrine or false belief. Now I will say this, when I go soul winning, if I know that somebody is deep into a false religion, I like to address that just to make sure that there's no misunderstanding. So for example, if I get down to the end with a Catholic, here's what I always say. I get down to the end of preaching the gospel to a Catholic and I'm just hammering that it's by faith, I'm hammering that it's believe on Christ. I get down to the end and I say, now when I first got here you mentioned that you were Catholic. And then I just gently and kindly tell them, I say, you know, the Roman Catholic Church, they teach something totally different about salvation. They teach that you do have to do works to be saved. You have to go to church, you have to confess to the priest, you have to be baptized, you have to follow the commandments. I said, but what I showed you in the Bible is completely different than that. I showed you that it's all by faith. Which one do you believe? That's what I ask. I just give them that choice. I say, look, the Catholic Church is teaching that it's all by works. I just showed you the Bible, that it's by faith. Which one do you believe? Do you believe what the church teaches or do you believe what I just showed you? Now, sometimes the person at that point will say, well, you know, I'm mistaken with what my church teaches. And, you know, that shows you right there. They didn't believe the gospel. They didn't get it. But more often than not, if a person lets you go through the whole plan of salvation with them and you do a good job of showing them from the Bible, most of the time they're going to say, you know what, I believe what the Bible says. I believe that right there. That's when you know they got it. Okay. Then it's a good time to lead them in prayer and say, okay, well, listen, you know, let me help you pray right now and just tell God that that's what you believe so that you can know for sure you're going to heaven based on the Bible. You can repeat after me. Let's bow our heads. You know, I would lead that person in prayer because that person has made a decision right there to repent of the false religion that they were part of. Uh, and obviously, you know, you could tailor that to other denominations as well. You know, if they're into something real way off the mark from, from biblical Christianity, then you know, you could kind of point that out to them that, that, hey, you got to leave that behind, right? That's the repentance. So when it comes to getting saved, getting to heaven, you don't have to repent of your sins to be saved. Because if so, we're all going to hell. Amen. I mean, can anybody here say, Hey, I've repented of all my sins. You'd be perfect. You'd be sinless. Well, you just have to kind of try. That's not what the Bible says. Well, you just got to be willing to repent. Well, do you have to repent or do you just have to be willing to repent? What if I'm willing to be willing? Is that willing enough? You know, I mean, where do you draw? It's a big gray cloudy area, and that's what people are doing with this repent of your sins junk today. They're muddying the waters of the gospel. And a lot of times they go all the way into a Lordship salvation of, well, you got to make Jesus the Lord of your life. That means you're going to obey him. That means you're doing the works and it just always comes full circle to works. It's just all these different ways of approaching the same thing works, losing your salvation, repent of your sins, make him the Lord of your life. Well, you got to have a saving faith and the saving faith also includes works, right? I mean, isn't that the kind of stuff they do, but it's all getting at the same thing works and it's a lie. It's a fraud. Now, the Bible says here that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. Some people would look at that and say, well, here's a great proof text that, you know, it was a repent of your sins gospel, but hold on a second. Stop right there, buddy. The Great Commission isn't just about getting people saved. First of all, because what was the Great Commission according to its most famous version in Matthew? It's to teach all nations. It's to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost. And then it's to do what? To teach them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. So the Great Commission is not just about getting people saved. The Great Commission is about getting people saved, getting them baptized and then doing what? Teaching them to obey the commandments, right? And what is obeying the commandments going to entail? Works. What's obeying the commandment going to entail? Repenting of sins. I mean, look, we should repent of our sins every day. I mean, repenting of our sins is a constant thing, but salvation is not a constant thing. Salvation is a one time thing. So when Jesus Christ gives the Great Commission, he's not just telling them to get people saved. That's great. Look, if the only job were to get people saved, we wouldn't even need church. We would just have soul winning times, right? We'd cancel our three services and just have soul winning times. Like, all right, everybody, let's do more soul winning because that's all it is, is just getting people saved. No, no, no. We're all set to baptize. And what we're doing three times a week, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, is teaching all things that Christ commanded. Teaching the whole Bible, preaching the whole Bible. So we have a three pronged mission here with the Great Commission. So to sit there and say, oh, well, you know, repentance and remission of sin. What's remission of sins mean? It means that your sins are not being held against you. Isn't that what that means? Remission of sins. It means that your sins are no longer on your account. Your sins are no longer imputed unto you. And even just the whole concept of remission of sins kind of makes a repent of your sins gospel meaningless in a sense. Because if we have remission of sins, if the Bible says blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin, then why would we have to stop sinning to be saved? The whole point is that we will sin and they won't be imputed unto us. That's the whole point of what it even means to have forgiveness of sins. And he doesn't just forgive our past sins, but he forgives present and future sins. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. He doesn't say, well, this, you know, this is something that happened after you got saved. I can't do anything with this. Well, but you just got to keep on repenting of your sins in order to stay safe. That's garbage. Do my kids have to stay my kids? No, we're sealed with the Holy Ghost in the day of redemption. This sermon is not about eternal security. I'm not going to go into that because I've, I've, I've preached that plenty of times, but we know that our life is eternal and that he'll never leave us or forsake us. So anyway, repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. Amen. Amen. Preach repentance of sin. Preach remission of sin, right? It doesn't, it doesn't have anything to do if we were to connect. What I'm trying to say is that if we were to connect the word repentance in verse 47 with the of sins, that's actually attached to remission of sins. Like if we wanted to say, well, the repentance also shares that same prepositional phrase. Even if it did, that still wouldn't prove that you have to repent of your sins to be saved because part of the great commission is to do what? To teach people to do all the commandments and to do works as well. That's part of it in Matthew 28. Go to Mark 16, Mark 16. We're gonna look at the second event. The second event where the great commission is given. So the first event was in John chapter 20. And in John chapter 20, we have a parallel passage in Luke 24. And when the actual great commission is given, when Jesus actually shows up, Thomas isn't there. Right? Thomas isn't there. It tells us in John 20 that Thomas wasn't there when that happened. Now in Luke 24, when Cleopas and his buddy first show up, Thomas is there. Everybody's there. But they're there for a while and Thomas must have left. He must have headed out somewhere. But for one reason or another, we don't know why, but it just worked out that when Christ appears in their midst, Thomas is not with them. So there's 10 disciples and a few other guys. We don't know how many. Because it said in Luke 24, with the others. Whoever the others are. So there's 10 guys there. 10 of the disciples. Not Thomas. Some other people. And the two guys from Emmaus. They got that first great commission. Right? Now in Mark chapter 16, it says in verse 14, afterward he appeared unto the 11 as they sat at meat. Okay. Now if he appeared unto the 11, this can't be that first incident. Because Thomas wasn't there when he appeared in that first incident. But eight days later, Thomas was there. And it was in that same location in the room with the door shut where they're having their meat. Where they're having food. So that's when this is. So first instance was in Jerusalem. Behind closed doors. Thomas isn't there. Second incident, Mark 16, and also John chapter 20, 26 through 29. He appears to the 11 as they sat at meat. And upbraided them with their unbelief, verse 14, and hardness of heart. Because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. And he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. So this is the third statement we have on the great commission. It's the second event of the great commission. And again, the emphasis is on preaching the gospel to the entire world. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. But he that believeth not shall be damned. Now this is a scripture that the Pentecostals will home in on and say that it teaches you have to be baptized to be saved. Well here's the thing. If this verse said, but he that is not baptized shall be damned, then that would be true. But you know what? You'll never find in the entire Bible, you know what you'll never find in the entire New Testament? You'll never find a verse that says, if you don't get baptized, you're going to hell. You'll never find that. But you'll find plenty of verses that say if you don't believe, you'll be damned. You know, he that believeth not, it says right here, shall be damned. It says in John 3 36, he that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life, but he that believeth not the sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Lots of verses that say he that believeth not's condemned already, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth. But what you'll never find is a verse that says, hey, if you don't get baptized, you're not saved. Why? Because baptism is not required for salvation. The only thing that is required for salvation is believing on Jesus Christ. Anyone who truly believes on Christ is saved, period. It's just that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. Now the fact that it says he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved could lead you to believe that baptism is necessary if you didn't read the rest of the Bible. If you didn't read the whole rest of the New Testament, if you took that verse all by itself, but when you take the verse and compare it to the rest of scripture and even compare it to the second half of the very same verse, it's clear that he that believeth not shall be damned. Now let me ask you this. According to our belief as a church, we believe that all you have to do to be saved is to believe on Christ. It's all faith, it's not of works, no baptism required, nothing else. Let me ask you this. Do we believe that if a person believes on Christ and gets baptized that that person will be saved? Yeah, that's me. I've believed and been baptized, so I'm saved, right? And do we believe the second half of the verse that if somebody doesn't believe, they're going to be damned? Yeah, we believe that too. Okay, but now let's take this verse down to the Pentecostal church and they'll say, oh yeah, we believe that verse. Okay, now let's give them John 3 16. They don't believe that. Because John 3 16 just says that whoever believeth is going to be saved. Do we believe that? Yes. Do they? No. And in fact, we could give them about 100 verses like that that they don't believe. They'll reject like 100 verses and they'll just want to hang on to just Acts 2 38 and Mark 16 16 and those are their two verses when we've got 100 verses saying it's all by faith. It's just by believing in Christ. So this verse does not contradict what we believe at all because it's true that if somebody believes and gets baptized, they'll be saved. And you know, a lot of times that's what we see is the outward profession of faith. We can't see the heart, but when we see somebody getting baptized, that's an outward profession of what they believe on the inside of the heart that we can actually see. You know, and we're more likely to believe that somebody's saved when we see them get baptized. If it's somebody that we know, for example, and we see them get baptized, then we're more likely to take their profession seriously. Whether or not, you know, they're really saved isn't the issue because if they believe in Christ, they're saved, period. But when we see somebody get baptized, you know, that is their testimony increasing at that point. And then when we see that person get in church and start preaching the gospel, obviously more and more we have an assurance of their salvation. Why? Because we can only see the works. That's all we can see. We don't see the faith. We don't see the heart. We go by what people say. We give them the benefit of the doubt, but we can't really know. And even if they get baptized, we can't really know because we don't know what's in their heart. Let's go to the third event of the Great Commission. Go to Matthew 28. Matthew chapter 28. And again, we're going in chronological order here. The first two events of the Great Commission took place in the upper room where they're assembled together for fear of the Jews. The doors are shut. They're at meat. It's at dinner. We see that twice in a row, that venue twice. Eight days apart. Okay. Here's a third incident. And the reason I say this is a third incident is because of the fact that, you know, it's clear that when He appears unto them and Thomas isn't there, He hasn't seen the resurrected Christ yet. Eight days later when Thomas shows up and Jesus shows up, it's clear that that's the first time Thomas is seeing Jesus. So this event in Matthew 28 had to come after those first two events. So here we go in verse 16. Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. This is not the same event as Mark 16 because Mark 16 was at meat indoors. This is actually on a mountaintop in Galilee, which is at least like 60 some miles away from Jerusalem. Now we might think, oh, 60 some miles. That's nothing. Okay. Would you like to walk with me 60 miles tomorrow? I've never walked that far in my life. I don't think I'll make it. You think you'll make it? 60 miles on foot? That's pretty far. That's going to take a long time. Now these guys were in better shape than we are because they didn't have cars and they didn't ride horses and they didn't ride bikes. I mean, they got everywhere by walking. So theoretically, yeah, they could do this in a really long day. It'd be a very long day. They could travel 60 miles on foot, but chances are it'd probably take a couple of days. So going to Galilee is a big trip. Now Jesus had told them back in chapter 26, He said, after I rise from the dead, you're going to go into Galilee and I'm going to meet you there. So He set an appointment with them, even before He even went to the cross, how He's going to meet them in Galilee. Right? Now in Matthew 28 here, if you go toward the beginning of the chapter, you'll see that He tells this again to the ladies that He talks to at the tomb. It says in verse number, or I'm sorry, this isn't Jesus telling them. This is the angel telling them. Verse 6, He's not here for He's risen as He said. Come see the place where the Lord lay and go quickly and tell His disciples that He's risen from the dead and behold, He goeth before you into Galilee. There shall ye see Him. Lo, I have told you. So they're being told right after Jesus rise from the dead, that morning, hey, Jesus has risen from the dead, He's going into Galilee, there you're going to see Him. And then of course, Jesus Himself appears to the women later on and so forth. But look at verse 16, it says, Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some doubted. 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've commanded you. And lo, I'm with you all way, even unto the end of the world. Now, again, if you're just casually reading this and you're not comparing Scripture with Scripture, you'd think that He appears to the ladies at the sepulcher, hey, I'm heading into Galilee, meet me there. A little bit later in the chapter, He meets them in Galilee, He gives the great commission. And if we're not reading carefully, we might even connect this to Acts chapter 1, where He's on a mountain of Olivet and ascending up into heaven. Because look, when you're reading Matthew 28, if you're not really thinking about it, it's pretty easy to read this and just think that He's about to ascend, right? I mean, just when you're reading through the Bible and you read Matthew 28, you're just thinking, okay, next thing is, right after that, amen, He ascended up to heaven, right? But no, because it's a different mountain, different event, different mountain. And remember, He's on this earth for 40 days. So if you casually read Luke 24 or casually read Matthew 28, you could walk away thinking that this all happened really fast, but it's actually stretched out over 40 days and He's just emphasizing certain things here. Now, why did Jesus meet them in Galilee? It's kind of strange, isn't it? Because He wants them back in Jerusalem for Pentecost, but He has this meeting with them in Galilee, He makes them travel 60-some miles there and 60-some miles back to meet them at this mountain. He had planned this. What's the reason? I don't know the exact reason. It's possible that this could have been the Mount of Transfiguration that He's taken them to, because it's not the Mount of Olives, it's some other mount. There must be some significance to why He took them to this particular mountain. There were certain things that He wanted to accomplish at this meeting. And maybe part of it is that the book of Matthew being geared toward the Jews and talking a lot about the nation of Israel and how the kingdom of God is going to be taken away from them, maybe He just wanted to take them out of Judea and take them to a different venue away from Judea and say, hey, look, you're going to teach all nations, okay? We're not in Judea right now. Now, I'm sure there's more to it than that, but the Bible doesn't really give us a lot of detail. But for some reason, they take this trip to Galilee, they meet Jesus at the mountain, and He has this teaching to them on the Great Commission, which I'm not going to spend a lot of time on, because it's the one that we tend to emphasize, Matthew 28, we've all heard it many, many times. And then lastly, we'll go to the fourth Great Commission, go to Luke 24, verse 50, and Acts chapter 1. So put a finger in Acts 1, and another finger in Luke 24, 50. Now, while you're turning there, think about this. He tells the ladies, when they come from the sepulcher, and they found the stone rolled away, and the angels are there, what do the angels tell the women? They tell them, you're going to Galilee, right? So why did the Galilee meeting happen much later? Why was the first meeting in Jerusalem? Here's why I believe that is. I believe that God's will was that they go to Galilee and meet Him there. That was basically plan A for Him, okay? Because that's what Jesus was talking about before He even goes to the cross. Hey, listen, I'm going to die, I'm going to be buried, I'm going to rise again, and then I'm going to meet you in Galilee. All right, guys, let's meet in Galilee. He rises from the dead, He tells the women, all right, everybody, tell them we're meeting in Galilee. But where are they that night? Are they on their way to Galilee? They're locked up for what? Fear of the Jews, right? In John chapter 20, they got the door shut, they're locked up for fear of the Jews. So I believe that God's original intent or what He had in mind was a Galilee meeting. Let's meet in Galilee. That's where we met the first time, right? Let's meet there again. But because they're all honkered down in Jerusalem for fear of the Jews with all the doors shut, He comes and meets them there and does what? Upbraids them for their unbelief. Eight days later, they're still there. He upbraids them for their unbelief, right? And so He's getting on them, He's preaching to them, He's given them the Great Commission, He's given them other teaching, and then finally they get their rear ends to Galilee where they were supposed to at the mountain so that Jesus could fulfill what He prophesied and meet them on that special mount in Galilee. So that's what He did, right? So then after He meets them in Galilee, He wants them back in Jerusalem because He said that they're to wait in Jerusalem until they be endued with power from on high. He wants them there for Pentecost. And it was important for Him to ascend from the Mount of Olives because when He returns, He's going to return to the Mount of Olives. So it says in Luke chapter 24, verse number 50, and again, if you read this casually, you would think that this is the same day that He rose from the dead. But in reality, 40 days have gone by, by the time we get to verse 50. And He led them out as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them and carried up into heaven, and they worshipped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen. Go back to Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1, and we'll close on this in Acts chapter 1. In Acts chapter 1, it says, The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which He was taken up, after that He, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom also He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them 40 days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith He, Ye have heard of Me. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put at His own power, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and under the uttermost part of the earth. So we have four times that He gave the Great Commission, two times indoors in Jerusalem, one time all the way in Galilee on a mountaintop, and then, of course, He meets them by the Sea of Galilee, but that's not a Great Commission thing. And then we have them back near Jerusalem at the Mount of Olives, giving them one last Great Commission before He ascends up to heaven. So we have three locations, four different times that He delivers the Great Commission. So what's the moral of the story? Why are we even talking about this? Why does it matter, Pastor Anderson, if He gave the Great Commission one time or two times or three times or four times? What I want to emphasize to you tonight is the importance of the Great Commission if Christ was hammering this over the course of 40 days. Because I guarantee you He was saying it even more than that. He appeared to them over and over again. He appeared to them and was seen of them for 40 days. He gave them commandments, and the Holy Ghost only chose to show us, right, these certain things as these men of God were moved by the Holy Ghost to write Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts. We're only given bits and pieces. We're only given just glimpses. Because if they wrote everything Christ did, the world couldn't even contain the books. So God chose that Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts would all contain the Great Commission. All of them. All five of those books contain the Great Commission. All five. So it's not just Jesus taught them a whole bunch of great doctrine for 40 days and then just one time said, all right, by the way, guys, go into all the world and preach the gospel. I'm out of here. That's not what happened. On the first day, he's like, you guys are going to go preach the gospel to the whole world, to every nation. A week later, he hits it again, takes them to Galilee, hits that again, brings them back, hits it again. Look, he's just hammering that over and over again. That tells me that the Great Commission is pretty important. And Christ's last words should be our first priority. And if that's what his father sent him to do, that's what he's sending us to do, we better take the Great Commission pretty seriously and understand that we're to be fishers of men and to go out and win the loss and not to wait for them to come to us, but to seek and to save the lost. We're on a seek and save mission to go find them where they are, and we will go find them wherever they are. We want to go to every lonely mobile home out in the middle of a dirt field on an Indian reservation, and we're going to knock that door and we're going to preach the gospel in that house. We're going to preach the gospel to every creature. We're going to leave no stone unturned, no door unknocked, no mobile home unvisited, no reservation. Not all of it needs to be covered. All of it. And we need to take it seriously, and we need to teach all nations. Not just, well, we're Americans, so we're just going to reach Americans. Or, you know, we're white people, let's go reach white people. Or we're black, let's go reach the blacks. No, no, no, we're to reach all nations. All nations. Every nation. Every type of people. Red, yellow, black, and white. I just had a guy tell me this week's soul winning. He told me, well, I just believe there's a different god for different nationalities. He said, that's your white man god. I'm black, and we have our god, and he said, you know, people in India have their god. No, he's the god of the whole earth. And we're to teach all nations the gospel. We're to baptize all nations, and we're to teach them to observe all things that Christ commanded. The Great Commission is super important. That's why Jesus brought it up over and over again, even though it only gives us a little bit of what he said during those 40 days. I'm sure he taught a lot. I don't think he took them all the way to Galilee to give them three sentences. I'm sure he talked more. I'm sure he taught more. I'm sure that he did more. The whole world itself couldn't contain the books of all that he did. But of what God chose to reveal to us, the big emphasis is Great Commission. Great Commission. Great Commission. In all five books. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.