There's No Omission in the Great Commission

Pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers has introduced people all over the world to the love of Jesus Christ and has impacted untold numbers of lives by presenting profound truth, simply stated. Thanks for joining us for this message.

Here's Adrian Rogers. Matthew chapter 28. In a moment, I'm going to begin reading in verse 18. Some years ago, I heard about a man who died and someone asked his little boy, what were your dad's last words? And he said, well, daddy didn't have any last words.

Said mama was with him right up to the end. Last words are important. And if somebody just before they step over into glory is giving some last words, we ought to pay attention. We ought to pay double attention if these are the last words of our Lord before he ascends to heaven.

Listen to his last words before he ascended to heaven. 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 always, even unto the end of the world. I want you to take your Bible and if you don't mind marking it, I want you to mark it as I have marked mine. I want you to look in verse 18 and mark all, all power. Just put a circle around the word all. Then go down to verse 19 and put a circle around the word all, which says all nations. And then go down to verse 20 and put a circle around all where it says all things. And then the last part of verse 20, a circle around the word all way. For all's there, all power.

Do you see it? All nations, all things and all ways. The title of our study this morning is this, there is no omission in the great commission.

There is no omission in the great commission. This is an all inclusive statement. Our Lord here is giving the marching orders for his church. These are his last words and he has left the marching order, the mandate to me, to you, and it includes four alls. Now, first of all, I want you to see that you and I, as we go out to fulfill the great commission, we are to employ all power. Look again in verse 18, all power is given unto me. Now without this power, the command to evangelize the world is indeed a mission impossible. And yet with this power, it is a mission not only possible, but probable and likely because our Lord has given us every sufficiency that we need. Now, if you think about those to whom he was speaking, now you think about it. He had a little handful of unlettered disciples, fishermen and ordinary people, no college, no prestige, no money, no machinery. And he tells them, I want you to evangelize all nations.

The entire world is just a little handful. And they're to go out against the iron legions of Rome. They're to go out against the sophistication and the intellectualism of Greece.

They are to go out against the stiff necked bigotry of Israel and they are to be his witnesses to all the world. I mean, how do you think they felt when he sent them out to do this? Well, without this power, I think they would have felt like those cows who were out in the field one day grazing and they looked up and a milk truck went past. And on the side of that milk truck, it advertised the dairy and then it told about the milk.

It said, pasteurized, homogenized, fortified, vitamin enriched from contented cows. And one cow said to the other, it makes you feel inadequate, doesn't it? I mean, when you think about what we're supposed to do and we are inadequate, but our deficiency with his sufficiency is all that we need. Our Lord says, all power is given unto me. And so they went and the book of Acts is a success story. It's the story of the church triumphant.

I love just to read the book of Acts. Those early Christians had something that swords couldn't kill, that water couldn't drown, fire couldn't burn, jails could not hold. There was no power that seemed to be able to stand against them because the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ was with them. All power is given unto me. Now I want you to notice four things about that power.

First of all, I want you to notice the description of it. Now, when our Lord uses the word power here, he doesn't use the word dunamis, he uses the word exusia. You say, what's the difference? Well, dunamis speaks a power that means might and force, but the word that he uses here means authority. And what he literally is saying is all authority is given unto me. That is he is absolute sovereign Lord. God has declared him Lord. Angels have announced him Lord. We must crown him Lord. He says all authority is given unto me and where?

In heaven and in earth. We're going to talk about that, but our Lord has sovereign authority. Now his word is final.

What we're talking about here is not a suggestion. We're talking about a command from our sovereign Lord who has all authority to make it. That's the description of this power. I want you to look at the don't remain of this power. Look at it. Look at it again in verse 18, all power is given unto me in heaven.

Do you see that? Verse 18, all authority, all power is given unto me in heaven. Now this literally means in the heavenlies.

What does that mean? That means in the spirit realm. You know, the apostle Paul said in Ephesians chapter six and verse 12, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places, literally in heavenly places.

That's literally what it says. There is a cosmic battle. There's an unseen war going on. There are spirit beings and what our Lord says is this in that realm, in the unseen realm in heaven, I have all authority and angels must bow before him and no demon can stand against him.

Do you believe that? I hope you believe that because that friend is the basis, the undergirding thing for the missionary enterprise to understand that our Lord has authority in the heavenlies. Angels serve him. Demons quake before the Lord Jesus Christ. He has authority in heaven and on earth.

What does that mean? It means that he has the right to say to every one of us, Lord, these people who live here on this earth, he is Lord and it means that his domain reaches to the darkest corner of the earth. The whole earth is to come under his sway. He is Lord over this earth. Christianity is not the Western religion and God help us not the white man's religion.

It transcends culture, creed, race, face, place, time. He is Lord in heaven and he is Lord in earth. He is sovereign Lord. Now the description of it, it means authority, the domain of it in heaven and in earth.

I want you to think of the dispersal of this power. When did this power come upon the church? He told them to go, but not to go until they had been endued with power from on high. In Acts chapter one in verse eight, and you might want to put it in the margin of your Bible, Jesus said, ye shall receive power after that. The Holy Ghost is come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

It is foolish and wicked to try to evangelize without this power and you will not have this power until the Holy Ghost is come. Luke chapter 24 verse 49, and behold, I send the promise of my father upon you, but tarry ye in Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high. Now he did not take this fledgling church and send them out to win the world until the Holy Spirit had come on the day of Pentecost. He said, you go to Jerusalem and you wait and you tarry until you be endued with power from on high. And on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit of God came and baptized that infant church with power, with the authority, the exousia and the dunamis of almighty God.

And when does this happen? Well, after our Lord ascended, Jesus went up, the Holy Spirit came down, the disciples went out and the lost came in. That is the New Testament pattern, the dispersal of that power. Now today, you and I don't have to pray for the Holy Spirit to come.

He came on the day of Pentecost in great power. What we today are to do is to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. And so we must be filled with the Spirit of God in order to witness that power has been given.

It is power to enlighten your mind. You want to be a soul winner across the street, around the world. You need to know where to go. You need to know what to do.

You need to know what to say. The Spirit of God will guide you. Power to enlighten, power to energize.

You need energy. You see, I can preach the gospel, but he, the Holy Spirit of God must impart the gospel. I need more than mere words when I preach. And it is the Holy Spirit of God that gives that unction and that gives that power not only to enlighten, but to energize. I read somewhere where a London scientist said, there is enough power in a cube of sugar to destroy all London. That's atomic power in a cube of sugar, but it's got to be released. I think of the power in this congregation.

Just look around, look at yourselves. The power is resident, inherent, but that power must be released in us. You get these toys at Christmas. They say batteries included. Without the batteries, they just don't work.

You have to go down to Walgreens to get the batteries because many times they don't come with batteries. But friend, what good is any program that Bellevue has without the anointing, the power of the Holy Spirit? They can be a program that's very fine, just like a toy or an appliance, very fine, but it just won't work without power. Power to enlighten, power to energize, and power to encourage. These early Christians faced persecution, but they received power.

Now, what is the, I've talked to you about the description of the power, the domain of the power, the dispersal of the power. What is the demand of this when our Lord says, all authority is given unto me? Well, he probably said this to the 500 who were gathered there after his ascension, but what he says to all, he says to each, and our Lord has the right to stand right before you, sir, just you, and tell you to do it. I mean, this is a demand upon you and to fail to obey is high treason against heaven's King. I don't care who you are. I don't care how much money you may give. I don't care how faithfully you attend. I don't care how circumspectly you walk.

I don't care how eloquently you may teach. If you're not in the great commission business of bringing souls to Jesus Christ, you, sir, you ma'am are not right with God. Amen. It's a good place for an amen or an omen. If you are not a part of this world missions enterprise, you're not right with God. They were taking an offering for missions and one man said, well, I don't believe in missions. The usher said, well, take some out then it's for the heathen. Now let me tell you something.

Let me tell you something. If this doesn't interest you, you're in rebellion against our Lord. He says, all authority is given unto me. Go ye therefore. All power. There's no omission in the great commission. Now not only are we to be energized by all power, but we are to edify all believers.

Now look at it again, if you will. Look, if you will, in verse 19, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Ghost. Let me back up here and say, not only are we to employ all power, we are to evangelize. We are to evangelize all nations.

Look at the word teach in verse 19, teach all nations. It literally means disciple all nations. It literally means to make disciples of all nations. It literally means to win them to Jesus Christ.

The word teach is the main verb. It is followed by three participles here, but the main verb is to disciple all nations. That is to bring people to Jesus Christ. All people without Christ are lost.

I hope you believe that. If they don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, I don't care what their religion may be. You can call me bigoted if you want to, but Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. He is the only way that a man can be right with God. Neither is there salvation in any other for there's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

That's Acts 4 verse 12. And Jesus Christ himself said in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth and the life. And no man comes into the father, but by me, we are to evangelize all nations. Nobody is to be left out.

Nobody is to be overlooked. They are lost without the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you might want to get in an argument with me and you say, pastor, you're going to tell me that man who's never heard of Jesus is going to die and be, and go to hell forever if he doesn't get saved. That's just what I said. And that is true. You say, well, I don't believe it.

Well, that's your problem. But our Lord says, there's one way to heaven and it is through him. And we are to take the gospel to every creature.

Let me tell you something. The great question is not, are they lost if they don't hear? The great question is, are we saved if we don't tell?

You think about it. I mean, how can we say that we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is our Lord and savior and we do not obey him. Jesus said, why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not the things that I say? You say, well, pastor Rogers, I am not a very good talker.

You don't have to be a good talker, little as much when God is in it. A preacher friend of mine said that he went, his hobby is bass fishing. He said he was back in the back of one of these big department stores and he met a man back there. He didn't even know the man, never seen him before.

They just back there in the fishing tackle place. And he just, he just said to this man, what's a good bass lure. When he said that, the man came alive. He began to talk to him about bass lures. He began to talk to him about rods and reels and lines and bass and fishing places. And he kept talking to him and he talked and talked and talked and he said, I got my stuff. And that man followed me out of the store all the way to my car. And he was, he was talking about bass and fishing and lures. All I, all he said, all I did, I just asked him what's a good bass lure. That was obvious. That man was full of bass fishing and what's down in the well comes up in the bucket.

Isn't that right? What a man is full of. You say, well, I have difficulty talking about Jesus. You know why?

Because you've got nothing in the well. You let Jesus Christ be a bright burning reality to you. I mean, you get saved and full of the Holy Ghost. You have to backslide to keep from witnessing.

I'm telling you the truth, friends. If you don't witness, it's because you must not know the Lord of glory. We are to evangelize all nations. You say, you mean I'm to go across the ocean?

Why don't you just go across the street? That's the theme across the street and around the world. He's going to call some to go around the world, but he calls every one of us to witness to those that we are around.

Now here's the third thing I want you to see. We are to employ all power. We are to evangelize all nations and we are to edify all believers. Look in verse 20, teaching them who? The believers, the ones that we want to Christ, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. Now we don't just win a person to Christ and then forget him.

We're not finished yet. We're to teach what Jesus commands and we're to begin with baptism. Look at it, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Ghost. You say, well, I don't think the baptismal part is very important or you don't, but why do you think Jesus put it in there?

I mean, who are you? Are you going to take the word of God and just toss certain things out? You know, I hear people say, well, I just want to be a soul winner. I just don't want to talk to them about getting baptized and getting into the church.

You don't. Are you smarter than the Lord Jesus who said, I will build my church. Jesus began his public ministry by being baptized. He commenced it by being baptized himself. He concluded it by commanding us to baptize others.

Now what he, he only had a ministry of three years approximately and he commenced and concluded that ministry with an emphasis upon baptism. Why is baptism so important? Does baptism save us?

Absolutely not. It is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that saves. Water, whether spoonful or tankful, can't take away sin. Why then are we baptized? Because he says, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things, what so ever I have commanded you. Our Lord has commanded it. Baptism is the way that you declare that you belong to Jesus Christ.

You're not ashamed of Jesus Christ. I wear a wedding ring. That's my one piece of jewelry right there. That's the only piece of jewelry I have right there. That little ring. Do you know why I wear that?

I wear that to let people know I belong to that girl sitting up there in that choir. I love her with all of my heart. I'm not ashamed of her. I am glad to be known as the husband to Joyce. I am not ashamed of her.

I am quite proud of her in the good sense of the word pride and I love her with all of my heart. And when you get baptized, it is your way of saying, I am not ashamed of Jesus Christ. I want everybody to know that I belong to him. And baptism is by immersion. That's the only kind of baptism there is taught, water baptism in the New Testament.

Why is it by immersion? Because it pictures the gospel of Christ. When you go under the water, the Bible says we are buried with him by baptism.

When you come up out of the water, the Bible says we are raised to walk in newness of life. That baptistry is a watery grave. It pictures the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

That's what it pictures. And every time a believer gets baptized, he says, I believe that Jesus died. I believe he rose again. And I believe when I got saved, I died with him. And when I come up out of that water, it pictures that I have a brand new life.

That's what it pictures. That's a liquid tomb. There's a funeral. The only mourner there is the devil.

He hated to see you die. Now, the water baptism is only a symbol of what saves you. The water on your skin can't take away the sin out of your heart. This ring doesn't make me married. It shows I'm married.

It's a declaration. That's why you ought to be baptized as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, because he says, once we make them, we're to mark them. Once we make disciples, they're to be baptized in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Ghost.

You say, well, why does it have to be by immersion? I just think I just like to baptize by sprinkling. Well, just find where sprinkling is ever taught in the Bible for baptism. When Jesus was baptized, he and the, uh, John the Baptist went down into the water. Jesus was baptized by John into Jordan. When Ethiopian eunuch was baptized, the Bible says they went down into the water and he came up out of the water.

The very word baptized, baptizo means to immerse, to immerse the place under. Well, you say, yeah, but not Pastor Rogers. Don't quibble.

Don't quibble. I mean, let's just put a little water on the head and call it baptism. Any old picture will do. Oh, I suppose you've never met Joyce. You say, Pastor, you have a picture of your wife?

Yeah, I sure do. Well, let me see it. Can I bring out a picture of a fire hydrant or a racehorse or a motorboat or Niagara falls? And you say, is that Joyce? I said, well, any old picture will do.

Now let me tell you something, friend. If baptism doesn't picture the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, what's the sense of it? What's the sense of it? It pictures salvation. It pictures the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Don't change what God has put down there in the word of God. And if you're not a baptized believer of the Lord Jesus Christ, you ought to get down this aisle or some aisle some Sunday real soon and say, I want to make an appointment for my baptism. I have given my heart to Jesus Christ and I want people to know that I am obeying him. You're not being baptized in order to be saved, but because you have been saved, you are to obey him.

Listen, listen to me, friend. We are to employ all power. We are to evangelize all nations.

We are to edify all believers. Teach them to observe all things whatsoever he has commanded us. What did he command us to do? He commanded us to go into all the world.

Every time we get somebody saved, we ought to say, now you're part of the great commission army. You are a baptized believer of the New Testament church and now it is your responsibility to help us to reach everybody else. You see, we're not simply makers of disciples.

We're makers of disciple makers. Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. What did he command us to do? He commanded us to be soul winners. We're to edify all believers. Now listen to me and we are to endure all the ages. Look if you will at the last part of verse 20, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. Now watch this.

Oh, this is sweet and lo, that means pay attention. Lo, I am with you all way, even to the end of the world. Now that's what the King James says, the end of the world, but that's that word world there may be translated ages.

That is I'm up. I'm with you through all of the ages. These 2000 years, the Lord Jesus Christ is still with us. Now notice, notice this, this great commission. It is preceded by the promise of his power. It is followed by the promise of his presence. See over here, he says, all power is given unto me.

You go. And then he says over here and lo, I'm with you always, even unto the end of the world. We have his power behind us.

We have his spirit within us. We have the task before us and the savior beside us. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

That's what it's all about. He says, you go and I am with you. You say Jesus is not real to me, pastor. Are you a part of the great commission? Are you a witness?

Are you a soul winner? Jesus will never be more real and near and dear to you than when you began to obey him. He says, you go and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. He's not going to just wind you up and forget you. In safety, he's with you. In danger, he's with you. In success, he is with you. In failure, he is with you.

You're not going to win everybody. A successful witness is sharing Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results with God. Now our Lord, our Lord knew what he was about when he gave the great commission to the church. And our Lord says, there's no omission in the great commission. All power, all nations, all commandments, always, and lo, I'm with you. What a mighty God we serve. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org or call 1-800-274-5700. Thank you.