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After Jesus had been crucified, dead, buried and raised from the dead, He appeared to more than 500 people in the 40 days between His resurrection from the dead and His ascension into heaven. The last set of instructions that He gave to His disciples before His departure is known as the Great Commission. His final orders would have shocked these disciples if they had only have understood their implications. You see, Jesus was giving them instructions to embrace A New Thing!
Mark 16
15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
- Go … and as you go into all the world
- Two Thirds of God is Go!
- This is not given as a suggestion but as a command … Go!
- Preach
- Proclaim
- Offering pardon and eternal life to every person on God’s terms of mercy through the acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
- Unconditional Surrender …
- Just as you are …
- All in …
- Gospel = Good News!
- To every creature …
Every person? From all nations? Wait … This was something new to these Jewish Disciples. They had not before realized the scriptures included those who were not Jews in the plan of God. It was not understood that salvation was possible for Gentiles. This was a new command for these men who had walked so close with Messiah.
The Apostle Peter encountered this dilemma of faith when he was taking a nap on a rooftop in the city of Joppa one afternoon.
Acts 10
34 ¶ Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality.
35 “But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.
36 “The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ — He is Lord of all —
37 “that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached:
38 “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
39 “And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree.
40 “Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly,
41 “not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.
42 “And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead.
43 “To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”
The best we can understand from the scriptures, Angels of God do not have the privilege, the calling or the responsibility to lead people to salvation. They are messengers and servants who primarily protect and encourage people and they certainly set people up to hear the Gospel, but we don’t see any Angel winning a lost soul to Christ. I don’t know why this is, but we do know that this seems to be consistent throughout the New Testament experiences. For example:
- Angels told the shepherds in Bethlehem to go into the town and they would see Jesus
- An Angel appeared to Cornelius in Acts 10 and had him send for Peter who then shared the Gospel with them.
- An Angel told Saul of Tarsus to go into the city of Damascus and wait for someone to come to him.
- An Angel told Ananias to go share the Gospel with Saul of Tarsus.
Mark 16
16 “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
- Believing is a matter of the heart and is our confession to God …
- Water Baptism is a matter of our obedience and is our confession to the world …
- Salvation is the free gift of God to become one with Christ while water baptism is a grace-filled opportunity to become identified with Christ.
- There is a dynamic necessity to both Believe and Embrace
- Just as Jesus was not water baptized so that He would become the Son of God, we aren’t water baptized so that we can become a child of God either. Jesus was water baptized because He was the Son of God and the voice from heaven sealed His identity.
- Romans 10 follows this same idea in the fact that we are told about two necessities concerning Jesus:
- to believe in Him as Savior
- and to confess Him as Lord
- Acts 2:38 renders the best harmony of the Gospel message by encouraging us to repent and be baptized because our sins have been forgiven.
- We cannot minimize the compromised position and the loss of potential blessing and impact at risk to the Believer who refuses to identify with Christ through water baptism … one would of reason be left absent of faith concerning their salvation. Refusal would be equal to denial if no greater reason were present.
17 “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;
18 “they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
19 ¶ So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.
20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.
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