Jesus was the sender of the gospel to all

JESUS WAS THE SENDER OF THE GOSPEL TO ALL
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospelto the whole creation.—Mark
16:15.
GreatTexts of the Bible
Christ’s Commissionto His Church
Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospelto the whole creation.—Mark
16:15.
These are the lastwords recordedof all Christ’s communications to His
apostles. Letus think what would be the effecton those who heard it of such a
parting charge. It made all the difference to the apostles, whetherthey should
simply be holders and possessors oftruth and blessings, teachers and
ministers in their ownplace and among their own people of the grace in which
they believed, or whether they should be missionaries ofit—messengers
running to and fro, and never pausing, never resting in their ceaseless and
unwearied wanderings, to carry the news onwardand onward, farther and
farther on, to ever new hearers and more and more unknown lands. So St.
Paul understood it: “From Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum”—the
type of all that was barbarous and uncouth—“I have fully preachedthe gospel
of Christ.”
Those parting words of Christ put the stamp on Christianity that it was to be
a universal religion; a religion, not merely universal in the sense that it should
be freely open to all who came to seek forit, but universal in the sense that it

should go out and seek for men in their own homes; a religionof conquestand
progress in all directions;a religionwhich should be satisfiedwith nothing
short of having won over “the whole creation,” the tribes of men of every
language and colour, from north to south, on whom the sun rises and on
whom it sets, to the obedience ofChrist, and to the Kingdom of His Father.
The subject therefore is a missionary topic in its widest sense. We may study it
under three main headings:—
The Responsibility of the Church
The Preparationof the Missionary
The Scope ofthe Commission
I
The Responsibility of the Church
This is Christ’s last greatEastercommand.
1. The first thought which suggestsitselfis the practical duty. “Go ye and
preach.” The matter was literally left in the apostles’ hands, it is literally left
in ours. Jesus has returned to the throne; ere departing He announced the
distinct command. There it is, and it is age-long in its application,—“Preach,”
tell of the name and the work of “God manifest in the flesh.” First

“evangelise,”then “disciple the nations.” Bring to Christ, then build up in
Christ. There are no other orders;we must think imperially of Christ and the
Church, and our anticipations of success mustbe world-wide in their sweep.
It used to be the fashion to laugh at Missions. You know how they are
representedand talkedabout in the pages of Dickens and Thackeray. That
time has passedaway. It is no longerpossible to laugh at them. The serious
statesmanfeels that, if not the missionary, then he knows not who is to create
the bond of spiritual fellowship betweenEastand West, Africa and Europe.
And he looks eagerlytowards this missionary effort. People canno longer
laugh. It is the biggestthing in the world that has to be done, and a great and
consuming desire has seizedthe souls of people of all sorts and kinds. The
mingling of the nations gives us our greatopportunity, our great
responsibility. It becomes a watchword—the evangelisationofthe world in
this generation. These are greatdesires, idealdesires. Remote, yousay. You
know not how they are to be realised. What is the use of bothering ourselves
with things that seemso far off and unpractical? That feeling is the contrary
of the Bible. The Bible always busies itself with things that are unpractical.
The mark of a Saint is that he busies himself with things that are remote and
unattainable.1 [Note: BishopGore.]
The Duke of Wellington was once asked, “Is it any use to preach the Gospelto
the Hindu?” The Duke said, “What are your marching orders?” “Oh!” was
the reply, “our marching orders undoubtedly are to ‘preachthe gospelto
every creature.’” “Very well,” was the withering answer, “You must obey the
command. You have nothing to do with results.”2 [Note:T. Lloyd Williams.]
2. The command is accompaniedwith a reproof.—He upbraided them with
their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which
had seenhim after he was risen (Mark 16:14). Remembering that there are
still millions of the human race who have never heard the Gospel, despite the

fact that nineteen centuries have rolled awaysince the command was first
given—if the Lord Jesus Christ appearedamong us some happy EasterDay,
should we wonder if He would upbraid us for our unbelief and the hardness of
our hearts?
3. The command is addressedto all classes—towomenas well as to men. It is
given first in another form to Mary Magdalene:“Go unto my brethren, and
say unto them, I ascendunto my Fatherand your Father, and unto my God
and your God” (St. John 20:17). It is repeatedto the other women who had
come to anoint the body of Jesus, as they were wending their way back sadly
to their homes. We feel at once there is a difference betweenthem and the
Magdalene;she affords us the highest example of sorrow and love, and she is
therefore first to seek Him; when she sees the angels she shows no fear, so
absorbedis she in the one thought about her Lord whom she had lost. But not
so the other women. True, their love was deep, their sorrow was keen;but
they came more calmly, debating, “Who shall roll us awaythe stone from the
door of the sepulchre?” JesusChrist would send forth as His messengers, not
only those who are filled with impulsive love to Him, but the calm, the
calculating, and the prudent. You who see the stone and know the difficulties
in the way, you who feel the awe and sacrednessofthe holy message;there is
need for you to go and tell; there are some who will believe your story, while
they will accounta Magdalene withher ecstatic love as but an enthusiastic
fanatic.
II
The Preparationof the Missionary
In the context of the following verse, “He that believeth and is baptized shall
be saved, but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned,” we find the

fundamental principles on which the equipment of the missionary for his
work is based. “Believe and be baptized,” is the watchwordof New Testament
teaching. What do these words mean to us?—Beliefand Baptism.
1. Baptism.—Takethe secondfirst. The Catechismbids the catechistask his
pupil what it means. And the pupil is to reply: “I mean an outward and visible
sign of an inward and spiritual grace, givenunto us, ordained by Christ
Himself, as a means whereby we receive the same and a pledge to assure us
thereof.” Here the thoughts speciallyenforcedare that the Sacrament, the
Baptismal rite, the Eucharistic rite, is outward and visible, a thing which
touches and affects the common senses,and canserve therefore as a “sign”
recognisable by them; and then that it stands related to something “inward
and spiritual,” belonging to the region of the “inner man” and to the unseen
and eternallife, which something is the grace of God, His free saving action
and virtue for us and in us.
Further, this “sign” is what it is by virtue of the direct institution of our Lord,
by whom it was “given,” “ordained” as nothing else of the outward and visible
order was expresslysanctionedby Him.
Lastly, His sacredpurpose in such gift and command is intimated. The “sign”
is a means for the receptionof the “grace,” a channelby which our being finds
contactwith the spiritual action and virtue of God for our salvation. It is also
“a pledge to assure us thereof,” a tokentangible and visible whereby we are to
graspwith new certainty the fact of our possession, to be filled, as we
contemplate the sign, with the animating conviction that this wonderful gift,
the grace ofGod, is, for our future as well as for our present, “a sober
certainty of waking bliss.”1 [Note:H. C. G. Moule, Faith: Its Nature and Its
Work, 190.]

2. Belief.—Whatis belief in the Christian sense ofthe term? Is it not a reliance
upon the intuitions rather than upon the reason? “With the heart man
believes unto righteousness.” Look atthe whole method of Christ’s teaching
and you will see at once what this definition means. Has it ever struck you that
the silences andthe omissions in the teaching of Christ are remarkable? He
does not attempt to prove the existence ofGod; He takes it for granted. He
does not offer a single argument for the existence of the soul, or the
prolongationof human destiny beyond the earth, or the certainty of an unseen
spiritual world. He shows us a publican at prayer—that is His way of proving
the existence ofa soul. He shows us Dives and Lazarus—that is His way of
making us aware of the immortal destinies of man, and of his relation to an
unseen world. Why is Christ silent upon the arguments which make for these
greatconvictions? Because He knows that no argument can give them
cogency. Theylie outside the reason. They are witnessedto by the intuitions of
mankind. It is to these intuitions that Christ appeals, and His appeal was
justified by the astonishing fact that while men eagerlydisputed His teaching
upon conduct, the worst man never disputed His fundamental assumptions of
the existence ofGod, of the soul, and of an unseen place of judgment behind
the veils of time. Christ, in His own perfection and purity of life, suggests God;
the publican at prayer vindicates the soul, for mankind from the beginning of
the ages has beena creature conscious ofa need for prayer; the inequalities of
life displayed in Dives and Lazarus suggesta spiritual universe where wrong
is righted, and final justice done to mankind.
You will perhaps saythat this is to beg the entire case;and so it would be, if
man were no more than a rationalcreature. But man is an irrational as well
as a rational creature, and all that is noblest in him springs from a kind of
redeeming irrationality. Love, heroism, martyrdom, are all acts of sublime
irrationality. Put to the test, we refuse to be governedwholly by our reason,
and we refuse every day. A man who never thought or acted, save upon the
full consentof his reason, would be a sorry creature, and his life would be a
dismal spectacle. There is a logic of the heart which is strongerthan the logic
of the reason.

Harriet Martineau speaksofthe real joy she found in deliverance from what
she calledthe “decaying mythology” of the Christian religion. She took
positive pleasure in the thought of its approaching annihilation. She, and those
who thought with her, announced as a sort of gospelto mankind struggling in
the wilderness, that the promised land was a mirage, and they expected
mankind to welcome the intelligence. That was the spirit of the old
materialism; the later materialism is full of incurable despair and sadness. It
is no longersure that it is right. It is no longer able to disguise the truth that
there are a hundred things in heavenand earth which were not dreamed of in
its philosophy. It has fired its last shot, it has announced the promised land a
mirage; and yet mankind follows the pillar of cloud and fire. In the heart of
the materialistof to-day there is a new yearning toward faith, an ardent wish
to believe more than his reasonwill permit him to believe.1 [Note: W. J.
Dawson.]
No logic or reasonwould justify George Eliot, who had repudiated
Christianity as vigorously as had Harriet Martineau, in reading Thomas à
Kempis all her life, and having the immortal meditations of the old monk at
her bedside as she died; but the logic of the heart justified her, and we love
her for submitting to it. What had she, a woman who thrust aside all the
theologies as incredible, to do with a Dinah Morris preaching Christ crucified,
upon a village green? Yet she does paint Dinah Morris, and through the lips of
the Methodistevangelistshe lets her ownsoul utter a message whichher
intellect rejected.2 [Note:Ibid.]
3. There must be a readiness to obey on the part of the missionary. “Beginat
home” is an axiom of Christianity, but as an excuse for not taking part in
missionary work it is futile. Beginat home means begin at your own
character, for what you are will determine what you do; but beginning is not
the whole. If you are resolved, in this supreme work of character-building, in
this supreme work of self-conquest, to cultivate or concentrate everyphase of

your energy upon yourself until your individual victory is complete, then it
will mean only the utterest woe of self-defeat. If we say we will not stretchout
a hand to help others until there is nothing in us to prevent the question,
“What lack I yet?” it will be simply that we lack the one thing without which
is the lack of all.
When the proposalto evangelise the heathen was brought before the
Assembly of the ScotchChurch in 1796, it was met by a resolution, that “to
spread abroadthe knowledge ofthe gospelamongstbarbarous and heathen
nations seems to be highly preposterous, in so far as philosophy and learning
must in the nature of things take the precedence,and that while there remains
at home a single individual every year without the means of religious
knowledge, to propagate it abroad would be improper and absurd.” And then
Dr. Erskine calledto the Moderator, “Raxme that Bible,” and he read the
words of the greatcommission, which burst upon them like a clap of
thunder.1 [Note:R. F. Horton.]
4. A Desire to spreadthe Light.—When the Christian faith, having begun its
life, almost immediately beganto spreaditself abroad, it was doing two things.
It was justifying its Lord’s prophecy, and it was realising its own nature. At
the very beginning there came a moment’s pause and hesitation. We cansee in
those chapters of the Book of Acts how for a few years the faith could not
quite believe the story of itself which was speaking atits heart. It heard the
ends of the earth calling it, but it could not see beyond the narrow coastsof
Judæa. But the beauty of those early days is the way in which it could not be
content with that. It is not the ends of the earth calling in desperation for
something which was not made to help them, which had no vast vocation,
which at laststarted out desperatelyto do a work which must be done, but for
which it felt no fitness in itself. The heart of the Church feels the need of going
as much as the ends of the world desire that it should come. It is “deep
answering to deep.”2 [Note:Phillips Brooks.]

Do we claim with a passionof desire to see the kingdoms of this world become
the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ? When John the Baptistcame, he
came to create an Israelof expectation. It was of that Israel of expectationthat
our Lord said, “From the days of John the Baptist till now the kingdom of
heaven suffereth violence, and men of violence take it by force.” Bythe
cryings of their desire they have forced the hand of God and brought the
Kingdom of God near. So it is. God will not save us without our own
correspondence.If He delays long, if we do not see so much as a glimpse of
one of the days of the Son of Man, it is because we desire it so little, because
we find so much acquiescence inthings as they are, so much miserable
contentment, so little eagernessofdesire. “Godgave them their desire, and
sent leanness withalinto their soul.” If you want little, or, rather, if your
wants are small and selfish, if the things you really care about are the things
that touch yourself, your own personalreligion, to geta church you like and
comfortable things,—things that touch your own family, your own interests,
your own circle,—ifyour desires are narrow, and selfish and small, then, lo!
God will give you your desire, and send leanness withal into your soul. You
have none of the eagerness andgenerosityof desire which belong to the really
blessed. “Blessedare they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,for
they shall be filled.”1 [Note:Bishop Gore.]
The old historian, Diodorus, tells of a fire in the Pyrenees whichburned off
the forests and penetrated the soil until a stream of pure silver gushed forth
and ran down the mountain-side. This is manifest fable. But there will be a
more marvellous story to tell when the fire of God’s Spirit begins to burn in
the hearts of His people.2 [Note:D. J. Burrell.]
A missionary explained how he came to enter the missionary field: “In coming
home one night, driving acrossthe westprairie, I saw my little boy hurrying
to meet me; the grass was highon the prairie, and suddenly he dropped out of
sight. I thought he was playing, and was simply hiding from me; but he did
not appearas I expectedhe would. Then the thought flashed upon my mind,

‘There’s an old well there, and he has fallen in.’ I hurried up to him, reached
down into the welland lifted him out; and as he lookedup in my face, what do
you think he said? ‘O, papa, why didn’t you hurry?’ Those words never left
me, they kept ringing in my ears until Godput a new and deepermeaning into
them, and bade me think of others who are lost, of souls without God and
without hope in this world; and the messagecame to me as a messagefrom the
heavenly Father: ‘Go, and work in my name’; and then from that vastthrong,
a pitiful, despairing cry rolled into my soul as I acceptedGod’s call: ‘O, why
don’t you hurry?’ ”3 [Note: A. P. Hodgson.]
Time greatly short,
O time so briefly long,
Yea, time sole battleground of right and wrong:
Art thou a time for sport
And for a ?Song of Solomon4 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti.]
5. A Work of Patience.—“Topreachthe gospelto the whole creation.” This is
a work of patience. We need the patience which dominated the spirit of St.
Paul so that he could write: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and
fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh
for his body’s sake, whichis the church” (Colossians 1:24). And we canfind a
still greaterexample of patience—the patience of Jesus, portrayedby the
author of the Epistle to the Hebrews:“Now we see not yet all things subjected
to him. But we behold him who hath been made a little lower than the angels,

even Jesus, becauseof the suffering of death crownedwith glory and honour,
that by the grace ofGod he should taste death for every man. Forit became
him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing
many sons unto glory, to make the author of their salvationperfect through
sufferings” (Hebrews 2:8-10).
When they kindle the festival lamps round the dome of St. Peter’s at Rome,
there is first a twinkling spothere and there, and gradually they multiply till
they outline the whole in an unbroken ring of light. So “one by one” men will
enter the Kingdom, till at last “every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord.”1 [Note: A. Maclaren.]
So mine are these new fruitings rich,
The simple to the common brings;
I keepthe youth of souls who pitch
Their joy in this old heart of things;
Who feel the Coming young as aye,
Thrice hopeful on the ground we plough;
Alive for life, awake to die;

One voice to cheerthe seedling Now.
Full lasting is the song, though he,
The singerpasses;lasting too,
For souls not lent in usury,
The rapture of the forward view.2 [Note: George Meredith.]
III
The Scope ofthe Commission
Its scope will depend upon the meaning we put into the word “gospel.”“Go ye
and preachthe gospel.”
i. The Gospel
1. What is this “Gospel”of“GoodNews” whichwe are to preach to the whole
creation? We may find the answerin the word “Atonement.” The Atonement
of Christ culminated in His Resurrectionand Ascension. The whole teaching
of St. Paul turned round “Christ crucified, and the power of his resurrection.”

“He that descendedis the same also that ascendedfar above all the heavens,
that he might fill all things” (Ephesians 4:10). It is this “power” that is able to
transform men’s lives—this is the Gospelwhich the Church is still calledupon
to preach to the heathen.
2. Perhaps our age unduly magnifies—andyet is it possible to magnify?—the
love of God manifested in the greatpropitiation of Christ’s death. We must
hold both, God’s righteousness—forwhatis God without righteousness?—
and His love—for what is God without love for a world of sinners? There is
the propitiation which sets forth hope. We cannot reconcile them, we often
say; we cannot see how the same actof the Saviour can exhibit both sides of
the Divine character. Perhaps we cannot. St. Paul and St. John could; they
could see no inconsistency. There is no opposition; they are two sides of the
same shield; we can do without neither, we need both equally, for God must
be to us the supreme name for righteousness, justas He must be the supreme
name for the love without which there would have been no redemption, no
atonement for a lost world. We know it is sometimes said that the Eastern
branch of the Church dwelt rather upon the Incarnation, and the Western
upon the Redemption. But that may be pushed too far. The factis, and we
rejoice to think that it is a fact, that the whole Church, in every age, has been
substantially one in the way in which it has held the centraldoctrine of the
faith. On that doctrine there is no division; there is perfect unity in the
Church.
We have an example in the hymns of the universal Church. What do they say?
Now I have found the ground wherein
Sure my soul’s anchor may remain;

The wounds of Jesus for my sin,
Before the world’s foundation slain.
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died.
Rock ofAges, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.
And perhaps all the doctrine of the Cross was nevermore simply or more
perfectly stated than in Mrs. Alexander’s children’s hymn:
There is a greenhill far away.1 [Note:J. S. Banks.]
3. But is there not a reactionarytendency in our immediate times,—not so
much to magnify the love of God in the Atonement, as to drift awayfrom a
simple trust in the saving value of Christ’s sacrifice? Are we not now, if we
may so speak, impatient of the word Atonement? It shocks oursense of
justice; we want to setour lives on a moral basis for ourselves. This may be
very well as a theory, the desire which prompts it may be worthy, but will it
work in practice? Which of us does not say in his heart, “Oh, if I had not
sinned before, I could now go on all right.” No, sin needs its remedy, as much
now as it did in Christ’s day. And we can find that remedy, now as then, only

at the Cross. All sacrifice is beautiful if offered in a right spirit, and Christ
will not despise our poor offerings;but our greatestsacrificescan express
their fullest meaning to the heart of the Eternal Father only when they are
offered up in union with the Great Sacrifice ofHis Son.
Look, Father, look on His anointed Face,
And only look on us as found in Him:
Look not on our misusings of Thy grace,
Our prayer so languid, and our faith so dim;
For lo! betweenour sins and their reward
We setthe Passionof Thy Sonour Lord.
ii. The Words of the Commission
The universality of the commissionis found in the meaning of the Gospel. But
we have also the express words of Christ: “Go ye into all the world, and
preach the gospelto the whole creation.” These words unfold the whole plan
of the Universality of the Kingdom—what Maclarencalls “the Divine
audacity of Christianity.” Take the scene. A mere handful of men, how they
must have recoiledwhen they heard the sweeping command, “Go ye into all
the world”!It is like the apparent absurdity of Christ’s quiet word: “They

need not depart; give ye them to eat,” when the only visible stock offood was
“five loaves and two small fishes.” As on that occasion, so in this final
command, they had to take Christ’s presence into account. “I am with you
alway.” So note the obviously world-wide extent of Christ’s dominion. He had
come into the world, to begin with, that “the world through him might be
saved.” “If any man thirst, let him come.” The parables of the Kingdom of
heaven are planned on the same grand scale—“Iwill draw all men unto me.”
It cannot be disputed that Jesus lived in this vision of universal dominion.
Here emerges the greatcontrastof Christianity with Judaism. Judaism was
intolerant, as all merely monotheistic faiths must be—and sure of future
universality, but it was not a proselytising—nota missionary faith. Nor is it so
to-day. It is exclusive and unprogressive still. Muhammadanism in its fiery
youth, because monotheistic, was aggressive,but it enforcedoutward
professiononly, and left the inner life untouched. So it did not scruple to
persecute as wellas to proselytise. Christianity is alone in calmly setting forth
a universal dominion, and in seeking it by the Word alone. “Put up thy sword
into its sheath.”
The missionary battle-cry of the MoravianBrotherhood is “To win for the
Lamb that was slain the rewardof His suffering.” They are a humble people,
smallestof all in figures, but a mighty hostin the word’s redemption. They
have one missionary for every fifty-eight members at home. They are careful
in the observance ofmemorial days. One of these is the Day of Prayer. On
August 26, 1727, theyset their greatvigil going. Twenty-four brethren and
twenty-four sisters decidedthat they would keepup a continuous circle of
prayer through the twenty-four hours of the day, eachbrother, eachsister, in
their own apartments accepting by lot the hour when they would pray.1
[Note:A. P. Hodgson.]They have put their swordin its sheath, and their
weaponis prayer.
1. The word “Universality” gives rise to two thoughts.

(1) It finds in the Gospela Father for everybody. In all the world it finds not a
single orphan. The sorrowing are everywhere;the thoughtless, depraved,
debauched, ignorant, wretched, the sinful are everywhere. But nowhere an
orphan. Whether in the jungles of Africa, the plains of Syria, the crowded
cities of China, or amid the civilisations of Europe and America, the great
Infinite FatherSpirit broods over the spirits of men. Men may forgetthe
Father, but He does not forgetthem. Into whateverdesert, across whatever
valley of sin, whateverslough of despond, whateverdepths of despair, He
follows them, wraps them about as with a garment, and whispers into their
timid ears the sweetassurance,“Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of
the world.”
There came to my office one day an old lady with white hair, starvedfeatures,
and tottering steps, leaning upon a cane. There was a scared, timid look on
her carewornface as she sank heavily into a chair and told me her pathetic
story. It was very simple. An utterly debauched and worthless son, who for
thirty years had brought nothing but sorrow to the heart of his mother, had
been arrestedfor an assaultfrom which his victim had died. He was lying in
jail awaiting trial. The bruised heart of the agedmother yearned for her boy,
for he was still a boy to her. In a moment of indignation at what seemedto me
outragedaffection, I asked, “Whydo you not leave him alone? He does not
care for you.” Her eyes filled afreshwith tears, her head sank lower, as she
answeredwith infinite tenderness, “No, I know he does not care for me, but I
care for him, and he cannot have a mother long.”1 [Note:G. L. Perin in Good
Tidings, 139.]
(2) Universality means a cure for every form of sin, and for all the sin of the
world. It does not believe in a defeatedGod. It is a victorious Gospel. One
cannot help feeling sorry for the God whom some people believe in. He is a
kind-hearted, benevolent God, who means well, but His world is too big. It has
slipped awayfrom His controland it is going to ruin at breakneck speed.

Christ, when He died,
Deceivedthe cross,
And on death’s side
Threw all the loss:
The captive world awakedand found
The prisoners loose, the jailor bound.
O dear and sweetdispute
’Twixt death’s and love’s far different fruit,
Different as far
As antidotes and poisons are:
By the first fatal tree
Both life and liberty

Were sold and slain;
By this they both look up and live again.
O strange mysterious strife,
Of open death and hidden life!
When on the cross my King did bleed,
Life seemedto die, death died indeed.1 [Note:Richard Crashaw.]
2. “Preachthe gospelto the whole creation.” The commissionaccording to St.
Mark is all too superficially read by Christian people. “Go ye into all the
world,” does not merely mean, Travel over the surface ofthe earth and speak
to men; the term “world” (kosmos)includes man and everything beneath him.
The preaching of the Gospelto individual men is the beginning of the work,
but the Gospelis to be proclaimed to the whole creation. We can reachthe
kosmos and the whole creationwith the evangelonly through men. In the
proportion in which men hear the evangel, and, yielding to it, are remade by
the healing ministry of the Servant of God, they become instruments through
which He is able to reconstructthe order of the whole creation.
Chaos createdthe agonyof the Cross. WhereverChrist came into the midst of
disorder, He suffered. He, before whose visionthere flamed perpetually the
glory of the Divine ideal, felt the anguish of Godin the presence of the

degradationof that ideal. All wounds and weariness, allsin and sorrow, not
only of man, but through man in creation, surgedupon His heart in waves of
anguish. He calledHis disciples into fellowship with Himself in this suffering.
The suffering of the flowers cannever be cured if we do not touch them. The
agonyof the birds can never be ended save as we care for them. The earth can
never be lifted from its dulness and deadness, and made to blossominto
glorious harvest, save as it is touched by the life of renewedhumanity. That is
the story of the sufferings of Christ. He came into the world, Himself of the
eternal Order, full of grace and truth, and in the consciousnessofchaos and
disorder He suffered.2 [Note:G. Campbell Morgan.]
The gardenof a truly Christian man ought to be the most beautiful in the
whole district. When it is not so, it is because he is not living in the full power
of the risen Christ. I sometimes think that if I am to judge the Christianity of
London by looking at its gardens, it is an extremely poor thing. Let us keep
hold of the philosophy of the simple illustration. That conceptionof Christian
responsibility which aims at the saving of individual men, while it is utterly
carelessofthe groaning of creation, is entirely out of harmony with the
meaning of this commission. The home of the Christian man ought to be a
microcosmof the Millennial Kingdom; and all the things of God’s dear
world—and how He loves it, flowers, and birds, and forces—oughtto feel the
touch of redeemedhumanity, and be lifted into fuller life thereby.1 [Note:G.
Campbell Morgan.]
There was a Powerin this sweetplace,
An Eve in this Eden; a ruling Grace
Which to the flowers, did they wakenor dream,

Was as God is to the starry scheme.
I doubt not the flowers of that garden sweet
Rejoicedin the sound of her gentle feet;
I doubt not they felt the spirit that came
From her glowing fingers through all their frame.
She lifted their heads with her tender hands,
And sustainedthem with rods and osier-bands;
If the flowers had been her own infants, she
Could never have nursed them more tenderly.
And all killing insects and gnawing worms,
And things of obscene andunlovely forms,
She bore, in a basketofIndian woof,

Into the rough woods far aloof,—
In a basket, of grassesandwild-flowers full,
The freshesther gentle hands could pull
For the poor banished insects, whose intent,
Although they did ill, was innocent.2 [Note:Shelley, “The Sensitive Plant.”]
3. Man in the economyof God is king of the world, but he has lost his sceptre,
has lostthe key of the mysteries of the world in which he lives, and cannot
govern it as he ought to govern, is unable to realise the creationthat lies
beneath him. Therefore the kingdom of man is a devastatedkingdom, because
he is a discrownedking; or in the language ofIsaiah, “the earth also is
polluted under the inhabitants thereof.” Man’s moral disease has permeated
the material universe; or as St. Paul says, “the whole creationgroaneth and
travaileth in pain togetheruntil now … waiting for the manifestationof the
sons of God.” Man’s moral regenerationwill permeate the material universe,
and issue in its remaking.
Turning to the Book ofPsalms, that wonderful literature of Hebrew
expectationand hope and confidence, we hearone of the singers of Israelas he
first inquires—
What is man, that thou art mindful of him?

And then, as in harmony with the original story of creation, he declares—
Thou hast put all things under his feet:
All sheepand oxen,
Yea, and the beasts ofthe field;
The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea,
Whatsoeverpasseththrough the paths of the seas.
We pass to the New Testament, and the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, a
logicianas well as a poet, declares, afterquoting from the singer of Israel, that
all the Divine intention is seenrealisedin Christ as representative Man. “Now
we see not yet all things subjectedto him. But we behold him who hath been
made a little lowerthan the angels, evenJesus.” He thus affirms that while all
things are not yet seenunder the perfect dominion of man, Jesus is seen, the
risen Christ, and the vision of Him is the assurance thatthe whole creation
will yet be redeemedfrom its groaning and travailing in pain, and realise the
fulness of its beauty and glory.
PerfectI callThy plan:

Thanks that I was a man!
Maker, remake, complete,—Itrust what Thou shalt do!1 [Note:R. Browning,
“Rabbi Ben Ezra.”]
Christ’s Commissionto His Church
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
Final Utterances
Mark 16:15-18
E. Johnson
I. CHRISTIANITYIS A GOOD MESSAGE FOR ALL MANKIND.
II. ALL WHO HAVE AFFIANCE IN CHRIST ARE MEN CONSECRATED
AND SAVED.
III. IF FAITH BE POSSESSED,ALL NECESSARYCONFIRMATIONS OF
FAITH WILL BE GRANTED.
IV. IN THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST, THE OUTWARD IS ONLY OF
VALUE AS SIGNIFICANT OF THE INWARD AND SPIRITUAL. - J.

Biblical Illustrator
Go ye into an the world and preachthe gospel.
Mark 16:15
Christ's commissionto His apostles
S. Martin, D. D.
I. THE WORK. Preaching the gospel.
1. Speaking. Muchof the real and useful work of life is wrought by words.
They are the tools of almostevery workerin some department of his toil. In
preaching the gospelthey are the chief agency.
2. The gospel. Gospel, in the lips of Jesus, represented facts in the eternal past
and in the eternalfuture — promises, predictions, His own history,
dispensations of the grace of God, and certain aspects ofthe government of
God; and gospel, to the ears of the eleven, representedthe same central truths,
with the outlying truths unrevealed, so that they could not mistake what Jesus
meant when He said, "Preachthe gospel."
3. A new work this. Not preaching merely — that was old enough; but
preaching the gospel.

4. A Divine work. Commencedby God Himself. A work which claims high
esteemfor all engagedin it; a work in which the loftiest ambition may be
satiated;a work whose results surpass in blessedness the creationof earth and
heaven.
II. THE WORKMEN.
1. Men of little refinement or education. This gave them sympathy with the
common people, if not influence over them.
2. Men of ordinary secularoccupations.
3. Greatvarieties of natural characteramong them. No two were alike. Yet
these very different men were calledto do the same work. The same gospel
may be preached in very different styles with equal success.
4. They had receivedspecialtraining for their specialwork. As more was
expectedfrom them than from others, more had been done for them.
5. Yet they were far from being perfect men. Just before this commissionwas
addressedto them they were upbraided by Christ with their unbelief and
hardness of heart. A perfectman or a perfect preacheris not necessaryfor the
preaching of a perfectgospel.
6. Although not perfectmen, they were men to whom special promises were
made — promises of the presence ofChrist and of the Holy Ghost — promises
of power.
7. They were representative men, foundation men, men who had to begin what
others should carry on.
III. THE SPHERE OF WORK. The whole world. No limitations of country or
climate; no distinctions of barbarism and civilization, bondage and freedom,
preparedness or otherwise ofparticular peoples. Whereverthere were men
these workmen were to go. "Every creature" — for every creature hath
sinned, and every creature is guilty before God, and every creature is going
astray, and every creature is liable to punishment. Forevery creature there is
gospelenoughand to spare. What a glorious sphere for working — the world,
man, men, all men, every creature! And what work!These workmenare

builders of a temple that shall fill the world, and stewards ofwealth which
shall enrich the world, and ambassadors upon an errand of supreme
importance to the world, and sowersin the field of the world, by whose agency
the wilderness shallbecome a fruitful field, men shall be reconciledto God,
the poor shall become heirs of God, and "the tabernacle of God," etc.
(Revelation21:3, 4).
IV. THE MASTER OF THE WORKMEN. He who saith "Go," came into the
world. He who saith "Go ye," Himself came:came not by deputy or proxy,
but Himself came. He who saith "Go ye and preach," Himself preached. He
who saith "Go ye and preach the gospel," is the gospel. He who saith "Go into
the world to every creature," is the propitiation for the sins of the world. With
such a Masterthe lack of willing workmenis truly wonderful. Shall we neglect
to obey? Shall we undervalue obedience as a means of redemption to others?
All cannotpreach, but all canrepeat the faithful saying, that Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners, and all canunite in sending forth men
qualified to preach, and in sustaining such men by contributions of property,
by manifestations of sympathy, and by prayer.
(S. Martin, D. D.)
Missionaryzeal
S. Martin, D. D.
A raggedschoolteacherwentout into the lanes of our city to bring in
neglectedchildren. He found a child, the very incarnation of wickedness and
wretchedness, andled her to the school. There she heard expounded and
applied the parable of the prodigal son. Shortly after the child was seizedby
fever, and the teachervisited her. In one of his visits he read this parable, and
when he came to the words, "Whenhe was yet a greatway off his father saw
him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissedhim," the
child exclaimed, "Ah, that was just like me! That's good; sayit again — 'a
greatway off!' What, ever so far, away, away, like me with the devil? That
must be far from God and the Lamb. Yes! I was a greatway off. How good!

how kind! But I'm afraid! have been worse than that bad son. Still, I have said
'DearJesus, I want to love you, I want to getaway from the devil; please help
me.' And I think He heard me, for I have felt somehow different ever since. I
am not afraid now; no, not one bit." When death was so near that it was
supposedthat all powerof utterance was gone, she arousedherself, and said,
in a clearand distinct voice, evidently referring to destitute children allowed
still to wander through the streets and lanes of the city: "Fetch them in; oh, be
sure and fetch them in! Fetch them in and tell them of Jesus, tellthem of
Jesus;oh, be sure and fetch them in."
(S. Martin, D. D.)
The apostolic commission
R. Newton.
I. THIS COMMISSION IS MOST IMPORTANTIN ITS NATURE. Consider
—
1. Its Divine origin.
2. Its adaptation to the circumstances ofmankind.
3. Its efficiency.
4. Its individuality.One and the same salvationfor all and each. One common
remedy for the universal disease. If there were some given place where all
must needs be, and many roads led to it. It would not be essentiallyimportant
which we took;but if there were but one road which would conduct the
traveller to the place where all should be, how carefully should that road be
sought! And is not Christ the only way to heaven?
II. THIS COMMISSION IS LEGITIMATE IN ITS AUTHORITY. It is the
command of the King of kings, and Lord of lords. And His authority is
twofold.
1. It is official — by delegationfrom His Father.

2. It is essential. Authority without control.
III. THIS COMMISSION IS OFFICIAL IN ITS EXECUTION. It is to be
done by preaching. There is a specialcommissionfor those sentout to preach.
1. The preacher must have a personalrealization of the benefits of the gospel
in his own heart. How canan unbeliever inculcate faith? How can an
impenitent man callsinners to repentance?
2. The preacher must have an ardent love to the fallen souls of men.
3. He must have a solemn, heartfelt impression, that the Author of the gospel
requires this at his hands.
4. He must have suitable qualifications.
5. He must have the sanctionof his brethren in the ministry.
IV. THIS COMMISSION IS UNIVERSAL IN ITS EXTENT.
1. Universal in point of place.
2. Universal in point of persons.CONCLUSION:
1. This subjectenables us to meet the infidel objectionwhich is urged against
the gospelonthe ground of its partial diffusion. This is not God's fault. He
commands that His salvation be proclaimed to the ends of the world.
2. How loud is the call on our gratitude that the gospelhas been proclaimed to
us.
3. How imperative is the obligation that we hand it on to others.
(R. Newton.)
Reasonsfor the preaching of the gospel
H. Townley.

I. THE WORLD KNOWS NOT GOD. By its own wisdom it cannot find Him
out. Instruction needed which God alone can impart. God has imparted the
knowledge ofDivine things to some, and ordered them to convey that
knowledge to the restof the world.
II. THE TEMPORALMISERIES OF THE HEATHEN ARE VERY GREAT.
To what torture do they submit in their blind devotion to false gods!Hasten to
lead them out of their ignorance and superstition into the light of the
knowledge ofthe only true God.
III. THE WOE THAT AWAITS THEM BEYOND THE GRAVE. What an
educationfor eternity is theirs!
IV. THE GOSPELIS THE POWER OF GOD TO EVERYONE WHO
RECEIVES IT.
(H. Townley.)
The duty of Christians with respectto missions
J. Langley, M. A.
I. THE NATURE OF THIS COMMAND.
II. THE EXTENT OF THIS COMMAND.
III. THE PERIOD WHEN THIS COMMAND WAS GIVEN.
(J. Langley, M. A.)
Goodnews for you
W. Birch.
I. THE GOSPELIS A REVELATION OF LOVE. Is there not sunshine
enough in the skyfor your daily paths, and is there not enoughwater in the
oceanto bear your small craft? The love of God is like the sunshine, and His
goodness is like the ocean;there is enough for you; and if you will but take the

gospelas meant for you, His greatlove shall be shed abroad in your heart by
the powerof the Holy Ghost.
II. THE GOSPELALSO IS A PROVISION OF PEACE. It takes the sting
from trouble; it takes the pain from sickness;it breathes to all, hope, paradise,
joy. And it imparts peace at all times. Whereveryou are, whatsoeveryou may
be, and through whateveryou may pass, the gospelgives you a peace that
sustains you safely. Like yonder impregnable British fortress at Gibraltar, so
God's peace shall keepyou. The waves may dash againstthat ancient fortress,
and guns may burst their fireballs upon it, but that rock is impregnable; held
by British hearts it shall stand againstall the foes of the world. So God's peace
shall enter your soul, and keepyou in all the trials and storms of life.
III. THE GOSPELIS A CALL TO LIBERTY. What is it that causes men to
feel the pain of guilt? it is that they are afraid of being discovered;they are
afraid of men pointing the finger of scornat them. But how blessedto know
that when we stand before the bar of God all our sins shall be blotted out.
IV. THE GOSPELIS AN INSPIRATION OF POWER. Ittells us that the
Lord shall stand up in your heart and raise a standard, which shall hurl back
the flood of sin. Howevergreatthe torrent may be the Lord shall breathe
powerto check it.
V. THE GOSPELIS THE INSPIRATION OF POWER TO BE HOLY. We
cannot in our ownstrength run the heavenly race;but Jesus enters into us,
abides in our hearts, and gives us His own almighty strength.
VI. THE GOSPELALSO OFFERS A PRESENT JOY. Blessings,mercies,
pardon, peace — all to be had now.
VII. THE GOSPELCONSTRAINSUS TO LOVE GOD, AND TO LIVE
HOLY LIVES, BY THE MOST POWERFULMOTIVE. What can constrain
us like the love of Jesus?
(W. Birch.)
Life in the gospel

W. Birch.
I. THE GOSPELIS BROUGHT TO US BY JESUS, OUR KINSMAN.
II. IN THE GOSPELJESUS REVEALS TO US THE CHARACTER OF
GOD. When you hold a magnet to a little bit of steelthe two are drawn
together, on accountof some mysterious affinity betweenthem. So, when a
sincere mind examines the way to God pointed out by Jesus in the Gospel, and
we are true as steelto the Saviour magnet, we are drawn to the breastof our
God.
III. THE CHIEF GEM OF THE GOSPELIS, THAT EVERY HUMAN
BEING IS FORGIVEN. We forgive men after they have beggedus to do so,
but God forgives men before they ask.
IV. EVERY MAN WHO SINCERELYBELIEVES THE GOSPELSHALL
BE SAVED FROM THE POWER OF HIS SIN. Salvationis not a varnish to
hide our blemishes;it is a new spirit which roots out every sin.
V. THE GOSPELIS FOR EVERY MAN.
(W. Birch.)
Preach, preach, preacheverywhere
C. H. Spurgeon.
I. WHAT IT IS THAT WE HAVE TO CARRY TO EVERY CREATURE.
The greattruth that "Godwas in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself."
What is meant by the word preach? Its meaning is extensive. It includes all
church work for the spread of the gospel.
II. WHAT IS THE EXTENT OF THIS COMMISSION?No limit as to where
this gospelis to be preached. No limit as to the persons to whom it is to be
preached.

III. THE INDUCEMENT TO ENLIST IN THIS SERVICE AND OBEY THIS
COMMAND. Godhas saidit. It is a delight to God. By it the electare to be
gatheredout. We should do it for our own sakes. BecauseJesus wills it.
IV. WHAT POWERS HAVE WE TO WORKWITH AND HOW CAN WE
DO IT? If all cannot preach, yet they may either teachthe young or influence
their own households.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
"Up, guards, and at them"
C. H. Spurgeon.
Searchye out, and look what you cando, and whatsoeveryour hand findeth
to do, do with all your might, for the grave will soonopen for you, and there is
no work nor device in the grave whither you are hastening. "Up, guards, and
at them," was said in the day of battle, and I may say it to every Christian. We
shall not bless the world by big schemes, mighty theories, gigantic plans. Little
by little grows the coralreef on which afterwards gardens are to be planted.
Little by little must the kingdom come, eachman bringing his mite and laying
it down at Jesus'feet. So breaks the light. Beamby beam it comes. One by one
come the arrows from the bow of the sun, and at last darkness flies. So, so
must break the everlasting morn.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
"Compelthem to come in"
C. H. Spurgeon.
He would be a poor sportsman who would sit in his house and expectthe game
to come to him. He that would have it must go abroad for it, and he that
would serve his Mastermust go into the highways and hedges, and compel
them to come in.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)
A greatwork
C. H. Spurgeon.
Oh, church of God! thy Lord has given thee a work almost as immense as the
creationof a world; nay, it is a greaterwork than that; it is to recreate a
world. What canstthou do in this? Thou canst do nothing effectivelyunless
the Holy Spirit shall bless what thou attemptest to do. But that He wilt do, and
if thou dost gird up thy loins, and thy heart be warm in this endeavour, thou
shalt yet be able to preach Jesus Christto every creature under heaven.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The greatcommission
R. S. Storrs, D. D.
I. IT IS IMPLIED THAT THERE IS AT LAST A GOSPELiN THE
WORLD; not a history merely, not a philosophy, but a gospel — a way of
salvationfor dying men; a finished thing, to which nothing is to be added, and
from which nothing is to be taken.
II. This commissionto preach the gospelto all the world also implies THE
CONTINUITYOF THE CHURCH AS A PREACHING, TEACHING BODY.
III. The extensionand establishment of the gospelthrough the world, TILL IT
EVERYWHERE COMES TO BE A DOMINANT POWER IN SOCIETY, is
an obligation on our part in whateverlight we examine it.
1. Considerthe gospelas relatedto whateveris bestin human civilization.
Civilization is but a secularname for Christianity itself. Popular education
comes from the gospel. As the dignity of man is realized there comes a
liberalizing of government, and tyrannic dynasties are overthrown. Domestic
felicity, literature and art, are aided by the gospel.

2. But beyond all this look at the spiritual wants of man to which the gospel
ministers. It transfigures man's whole life.
3. Recallthe new impressions which we ourselves have receivedof the
greatness andvalue of the gospel. We have felt its inspiring energy in our own
hearts.
4. Thus we enter the fellowship of the noblest souls of earth — a society
grander than that of a mere intellectual companionship — even with the
ancient martyrs. But best of all, the executionof this greatcommissionbrings
us into fellowship with Jesus Christ, in His unique and royal work.
(R. S. Storrs, D. D.)
Every Christian a preacher
Dr. Cuyler.
It is often said that there are not preachers enough to meet the demands of the
land and of the world. That may be true. But every living Christian is a
preacher. Every prayerful, earnest, godly life is a sermon. There are a
hundred ways of preaching Jesus without choosing a Bible text or standing in
a pulpit. A Wilberforce could proclaim the gospelof love on the floor of the
British Parliament, even though he wore no surplice and never had a bishop's
hand laid upon his honoured head. George H. Stuart was an apostle of the
cross whenhe organizedthe Christian commissionfor soldiers'tents; and
John Macgregorwas anotherwhen he organized the "Shoe-black Brigades"
in the streets of London. Hannah More preached Christ in the drawing room,
and Elizabeth Fry in prison cells, and Florence Nightingale in the hospitals,
and SarahF. Smiley among the freedmen of the South. Our Masterscatters
His commissions very widely. Harlan Page dropping the tract and the kind
word through the city workshops;John Wanamaker, the Christian merchant,
mustering poor children into his "Bethany" mission house;James Lennox,
giving his gold to build churches and hospitals; the Dairyman's Daughter,
murmuring the name of Jesus with her faint, dying voice;George Muller,
housing and feeding God's orphans — all these were effective and powerful

preachers of the glorious gospelof the Sonof God. There is a poor
needlewomanin my congregationwhose unselfish, cheerful, holy life
impresses me as much as any pulpit messageofmine can possibly impress her.
A true and noble life is the mightiest of discourses.It is the sermons in shoes
that must convert the world to Jesus, if it is ever to be converted.
(Dr. Cuyler.)
To every creature
D. L. Moody.
Christ's own word for it, come with me to that scene in Jerusalemwhere the
disciples are bidding Him farewell. Calvary, with all its horrors, is behind
Him; Gethsemane is over, and Pilate's judgment hall. He has passedthe
grave, and is about to take His place at the right hand of the Father. Around
Him stands His little band of disciples, the little church He was to leave to be
His witnesses. The hour of parting has come, and He has some "lastwords"
for them. Is He thinking about Himself in these closing moments? Is He
thinking about the throne that is waiting Him, and the Father's smile that will
welcome Him to heaven? Is He going over in memory the scenes ofthe past;
or is He thinking of the friends who have followed Him so far, who will miss
Him so much when He is gone? No, He is thinking about you. You imagined
He would think of those who loved Him? No, sinner, He thought of you then.
He thought of His enemies, those who shunned Him, those who despisedHim,
those who killed Him — He thought what more He could do for them. He
thought of those who world hate Him, of those who would have none of His
gospel, ofthose who would sayit was too goodto be true, of those who would
make excuse that He never died for them. And then turning to His disciples,
His heart just bursting with compassion, He gives them His farewellcharge:
"Go ye into all the world and preach the gospelto every creature." Theyare
almost His last words, "to every creature."
(D. L. Moody.)

Preachthe gospel
S. R. Hole, M. A.
When we ask in these days what does this injunction mean, the answers which
come to us, from within and from without the Church, are many and
discordant. As in the earliesttimes of Christianity there were pseudo-gospels,
counterfeits, and forgeries, so it is now.
I. AMONG THESE PSEUDO-GOSPELS OUTSIDE THE PALE OF THE
CHURCH WE HAVE —
1. The gospelof reason;the idea that man, by his own mental power, is
rapidly acquiring a newer and truer wisdom, which is to make the world
happier and better than it has ever been. It is a religion of the head, not the
heart; it cannot therefore apprehend spiritual verities.
2. The easy, plausible gospelof universal toleration and philanthropy, which
assumes and abuses the sacredname of love. Indifferent altogetherfor truth,
caring only for expediency. Anything for peace.
3. The gospelof sentiment — the religionwhich very much resembles those
pictures in which the cross is almost hidden by gay colouredflowers —
satisfying itself with music, sensationalpreaching, controversialreading, and
much speaking, but shirking the plain uninteresting duties of daily life, and
doing no realwork for others, for the soul, and for God.
4. The gospelof wealth, pleasure, honour, authority, believing (so falsely) that
a man's life consists in the abundance of the things he possesses.
II. AND THEN, WITHIN THE CHURCH, HOW MANY GOSPELS? Alas,
what sore surprise and sorrow would vex the righteous soul of one of those
who lived in the earlier, happier days of our faith could he re-visit this world
and witness our unhappy divisions! "What has become," he would say, "of
the apostles'doctrine and fellowship? How the seamless robe ofour crucified
Lord is rent and torn; and that, not by declaredenemies, but by professed
friends!"

III. WHAT, THEN, ARE WE TO PREACH? We must appeal to two friends,
whom we shall find in every heart; two allies who will help us; two witnesses
who will come into court.
(1)Love and
(2)fear.Letall seek Christas their Saviour, lest they tremble when He comes
to be their Judge.
(S. R. Hole, M. A.)
Missionarywork for all Christians
C. M. Southgate.
After these words were spoken, the missionary duty of the Church, in its
nearestand remotestextent, was as little a matter of doubt as the
resurrection. A thousand other things it may do or neglect;may have
elaborate organizationor none; may build cathedrals, or pitch tents; may
master all learning and art, or know nothing save Christ and Him crucified;
but go it must, and preachit must, or it is not Christ's Church. You little
children who love Jesus must tell others of His love. You rich men must work
through your money; you wise men by your wisdom; you poor uncultured
souls through your prayers. Unless you do your utmost to spread the
kingdom, you disobey the first law of the kingdom; unless your love reaches
out to all men, you have not the spirit of Christ, who died for all. A positive
belief and a missionary spirit have long ago been proved the indispensable
characteristicsofa living Church. The Lord speaks in tender tones to rouse
our sympathy for those who are perishing for lack of knowledge. He unfolds
the magnificent conceptionof the empire of holy love, exalting the continents
and blessing the isles. He stands in the midst of these unredeemed millions and
says:"Come. Lo! I am waiting for you here." But behind all invitations stands
the command, "Go, preach;" and above them all rises the judgment, for us
and for them, with its eternal blessednessand eternalwoe.
(C. M. Southgate.)

Go
"I hope," says Mr. Knibb, of St. Petersburg, in a letter, "the subject of
devoting ourselves and our children to God and to His service will be more
thought of, and more actedupon, than it has been hitherto. I am more and
more convinced that, if St. Paul had ever preachedfrom this particular text,
he would have laid greatstress onthe word 'go.' On your peril do not
substitute another word for go. Preachis a goodword; direct is a goodword;
collectis a goodword; give is a goodword. They are all important in their
places, and cannot be dispensedwith. The Lord bless and prosper those who
are so engaged, but still lay the stress on the word go; for 'how canthey hear
without a preacher, and how can they preach exceptthey be sent?' Six
hundred millions of the human race are perishing, and there are perhaps
thirty among all the Christians in Britain who are at this moment preparing
to 'go'!"
The commission
C. M. Southgate.
Words of strong authority from the captain to the soldier; from master to
servant; from Redeemerto redeemed; from king to subject. No doubt as to
possibility, no discussing of dangers, no calculating of results — "Go!" Great
oceans, highmountains, wide deserts are in the way; shipwreck, fever,
starvation, death — "Go!" The people are brutish and hard of heart; they
have slain the Lord; they will not hear the disciple — "Go!" I am but a child,
a man of unclean lips; I forsook the Lord and fled; I denied Him "Go!"
(C. M. Southgate.)
Go ye into all the world
John Bate.

There is one feature of Christianity which must strike the mind of every
observer, viz., that no other system of religion in the world is missionary. They
all limit themselves to the people, country, and clime where they have grown.
Where are the missionaries ofthe religions of China, India, Africa, Persia, or
Japan? But no soonerwas Christianity introduced into the world than it sent
forth its agencies beyondthe place of its introduction. "Jerusalem, Judea,
Samaria, and the utmost parts of the earth" are the scope of its operations.
"Go ye into all the world, and preachthe gospelto every creature," is the
command of the Spirit to all its agents. And hence Christianity has its agents,
institutions, literature, and means in every quarter of the globe. What does
this prove for Christianity? That, as a system of religion, it is nobler, grander,
more benevolent and diffusive than any other; and the successwhichhas
crownedChristianity wherever it has gone demonstrates that it is Divine in its
origin; adapted to all minds, hearts, lives, and countries;civilizing,
meliorating, saving, and beautifying in its effects;and the only religion which
can restore a fallen world to its glorious Creatorand God.
(John Bate.)
A strange messenger
A professionaldiver said he had in hi, house what would probably strike a
visitor as a very strange chimney ornament — the shells of an oysterholding
fast a piece of printed paper. The possessorofthis ornament was diving on the
coast, whenhe observed at the bottom of the sea this oyster on a rock, with a
piece of paper in its mouth, which he detached, and commencedto read
through the goggles of his headdress. It was a gospeltract, and, coming to him
thus strangelyand unexpectedly, so impressed his unconverted heart, that he
said, "I can hold out againstGod's mercy in Christ no longer, since it pursues
me thus." He became, whilst in the ocean's depth, a repentant, converted, and
(as he was assured)sin-forgiven man. Saved at the bottom of the sea.
Universality of the message

Dr. T. W. Jenkyn.
The apostles understoodtheir commissionto be generaland indiscriminate
for every creature;so they receivedit from Him who laid the foundation of
such an extensive ministration by tasting death for every man. Accordingly,
they went forth on their commission, to preach the gospelto all the world.
They did not square their messageby any human system of theology, nor
measure their language to the lines of Procrusteancreeds. Theyemployed a
dialect that traverses the length and breadth of the world. They did not
tremble for such an unreserved exhibition of the ark and the mercy seat. They
could not bring themselves to stint the remedy which was prepared and
intended to restore a dying world, nor would they cramp the bow which God
had lighted up in the storm which threatened all mankind.
(Dr. T. W. Jenkyn.)
The Church's orders
During the American war, a regiment received orders to plant some heavy
guns on the top of a very steephill. The soldiers draggedthem to the base of
the hill, but were unable to get them any farther. An officer, learning the state
of affairs, said, "Men, it must be done! I have the orders in my pocket." So the
Church has orders to discipline the world.
Progressofmissions
Bp. H. M. Thompson.
We sometimes complain of the slow progress of missions, as though nothing
had been done. Is it nothing that the Church has been arousedto her duty?
that every large branch of Zion has her missionary organization? that these
amount to eighty? that four thousand missionaries are in the field? that the
Word of God is preachedin fifteen thousand localities ofthe heathen world?
ten million dollars are collectedannually to sustain these missions? that six
hundred and eighty-seventhousand converts are enrolled in Africa, and seven

hundred and thirteen thousand in Asia? and that, if we add to these the fruits
of the Romish missions, we shall number Christians by the million in the
heathen world?
(Bp. H. M. Thompson.)
The universal gospel
The late Duke of Wellington once met a young clergyman, who, being aware
of his Grace's formerresidence in the East, and of his familiarity with the
ignorance and obstinacy of the Hindoos in support of their false religion,
gravely proposedthe following question: "Does notyour Grace think it almost
useless andabsurd to preach the gospelto the Hindoos?" The Duke
immediately rejoined: "Look, sir, to your marching orders, 'Preachthe gospel
to every creature.'"
Successofmissions
Careyand his compeers, the first English Baptist missionaries, labouredseven
years before the first Hindoo convert was baptized. Judson toiled on for years
without any fruit of his labour, until the few churches in this land which
sustainedhim began to be disheartened. He wrote, "Beg the churches to have
patience. If a ship were here to carry me to any part of the world, I would not
leave my field. Tell the brethren successis as certain as the promise of a
faithful God canmake it." The missionwas commencedin 1814. In 1870 there
were more than a hundred thousand converts.
Vivifying effects of missions
F. F. Trench.
As Peter walkedat eventide, his lengthened shadow, as it fell on the gathered
sick in the streets ofJerusalem, healedas it sweptover them; even so is

Christianity going through the earth like a spirit of health, and the nations,
miserable and fallen, start up and live as she passes.
(F. F. Trench.)
The duty and results of preaching the gospel
George Weight.
I. THE EXTENT OF OUR COMMISSION.
1. "All the world" — because all the world is involved in transgression.(1)We
learn this from Scripture (Romans 3:19, 23; Romans 5:12).(2)Experience
confirms this. All the foundations of the world are out of course.
2. "All the world" — because man's wants are everywhere the same. All need
pardon; all need enlightenment; all need peace.
3. "All the world" — because Godhas designedto collecta people for Himself
from all the tribes and families of men.
II. THE OBJECT OF OUR EMBASSY. To preach the gospel — the glad
tidings of mercy and grace.
1. The gospelmust be preached faithfully. Nothing of our own put in; nothing
of God's left out.
2. The gospelmust be preached affectionately. Notto drive men away, but to
gather them in; not to terrify, but to console.
3. The gospelmust be preached in complete and entire dependence upon the
grace ofChrist.
III. THE RESULTS THAT WILL ATTEND THE ACCEPTANCEOR
REJECTION OF OUR MESSAGE. None canperish but by their own fault.
(George Weight.)

The obligations and requirements of the gospel
E. Grindrod.
I. THE NATURE OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S COMMISSION.To
preach the gospel, explain its doctrines, to enforce its precepts, to proclaim its
promises, and to denounce its threatenings.
II. THE END OR DESIGN OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER'S
COMMISSION.To preachthe gospelin all the world and to every creature.
1. This implies that all mankind stand in need of the gospel.
2. It implies universality of designon the part of God to bestow the benefits of
the gospelonthose who receive it.
3. It implies universal grace and efficiencyas accompanying the ministry of
the gospelto render it effectualfor the salvationof all.
4. It implies an obligation on the part of the Church to send its ministers
literally into all the world and to every creature.
III. THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE GOSPELFROM THOSE TO WHOM
IT IS PREACHED.
1. The gospelrequires faith from those to whom it is preached. Saving faith
consists oftwo parts.
(1)The faith by which the sinner is justified. And in this there are three
distinct acts.
(i)The assentof the understanding.
(ii)The consentof the will.
(iii)The soul's repose and reliance upon Christ for pardon.
(2)The faith by which the Christian daily lives. Trust. Confidence in God,
leading to prompt and willing obedience.
2. Baptism. The duties imposed upon all baptized are —

(1)To maintain an open connectionwith the Church.
(2)To defend the cause of Christ againstall adversaries.
(3)To live a holy life.
IV. THE RESULTS OF THE RECEPTION OR REJECTIONOF THE
GOSPEL.
(E. Grindrod.)
The duty of spreading the gospel
C. H. Spurgeon.
Huber, the greatnaturalist, tells us that if a single wasp discovers a deposit of
honey or other food, he will return and impart the goodnews to his
companions, who will then sally forth in greatnumbers to partake of the fare
which has been discoveredfor them. Shall we who have found honey in the
rock Christ Jesus be less considerate ofour fellow men than wasps are of their
fellow insects?
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The gospelfor every creature
D. L. Moody.
I heard of a womanonce who thought that there was no promise in the Bible
for her; they were all for other people. One day she gota letter, and, when she
opened it, found it was not for her at all, but for some other woman of the
same name. It led her to ask herself, "If I should find some promise in the
Bible directed to me, how should I know that it meant me, and not some other
woman?" And she found out that she must just take God at His word, and
include herselfamong the "whosoevers" andthe "everycreatures" to whom
the gospelis freely preached.

(D. L. Moody.)
The greatcommission
N. Hall, LL. B.
A Christian is one who professes to obey Jesus. Jesushas distinctly told us to
go and preach the gospelthrough. out the world; therefore, whatever
objections may be brought againstChristian missions, are really brought
againstthe authority of Christ and againstChristianity itself. The Christian
who opposes Christianmissions is an anomaly. Some philosophers may say
that Christianity is unsuited to the circumstances ofevery nation. Some
philanthropists may say there is a bettor method of doing goodto the world;
some patriots may say that all we can do should be done in our own country;
some politicians may saythat it is unwise to interfere with the established
institutions of other countries; some practicalmen may say the results
accomplishedare not worth the pains taken. Now, if we have no distinct reply
to any of these objections, it is sufficient that we are under the orders of
Christ, and those orders we must comply with. Suppose that when the
commander-in-chief of an army calls his officers to him and says:"You are to
storm every battery, to attack every position, of the enemy," then the
subordinate officers were to say: "I can't see the reasonof this; there's an
insuperable difficulty yonder; we had better delay the executionof the
command." It would be monstrous, although it might be that your
commander is mistaken, or perhaps the command itself is ambiguous. But in
this case the command is not ambiguous; nothing could be more clear — go;
go everywhere, go everywhere and preach; preach the gospelto everyone.
Nothing could be plainer. And then there is greatemphasis given to the
command by the circumstances under which it was uttered. A command in
battle may be given in the time of conflict, and at the order may be mistaken;
but this command was not given under the excitement of conflict; the conflict
was over, the battle finished, the victory over death had been won, and calmly,
as by a conqueror, this word of command was given. We think much of the
last words of anyone who addresses us. These are Christ's last words: there is

greatemphasis about them. Part of Christ's work was complete, the great
work of offering a sacrifice for the world; but part of Christ's work was not
complete, the work of publishing the gospel. His own personalministry was
limited — in locality, in time — it only extended over Palestine, and only
lastedthree years. But the ministry of Christ in the publication of His gospel
was to be continued through the agencyof His Church.
I. WHAT? what is it we have to do?
1. Preachthe gospel. The world had to be possessedfor Christ. By the
employment of what weapons?Shallswords and spears be collected, soldiers
trained, armies organized? "Preachthe gospel." Shallthe arts of diplomacy
be used? Shall statesmenand rulers be upraised so that they may pass laws by
which whole communities under their influence shall be gathered, at least
outwardly, into the Church? "Preachthe gospel."Shallthe servants of Christ
be engagedto amass wealth, so that by money — which is said to be able to do
everything — we may purchase the adhesion of the world? "Preachthe
gospel." Disdaining these carnalmethods referred to, shall we apply ourselves
to other methods more spiritual? Shall we apply ourselves to philosophy?
Shall we take ourselves to the current theories of the day, and try to overcome
the prejudices of the learned, and win the intellect of the wise? "Preachthe
gospel."
2. What, then, is this gospel? Goodnews. That, then, is the gospel — the
Saviour — Christ. And this gospelis to be preached — not displayed in
outward forms and mystic ceremonies, as the ceremonies ofthe Old
Testamentindicated typically the glory that was to come. Go and preachit,
declare the truth, speak it to men's minds, that it may enter their hearts.
3. But why should it be preached by men? Why should it not have been made
known by some supernatural, miraculous manner to everyone? Why the delay
connectedwith preaching? There are mysteries we cannot solve. The arts and
scienceshave been left for man to work out. God gives us the materials for
food — we prepare them; provides the land — we have to cultivate it; gives
salvation— we have to acceptit; the gospelmessage— we have to propagate
it. Then, again, we might say our own spiritual culture requires this work; it

would be an injurious thing for us if we had not this work to do. It is not likely
we can understand all the mysteries of the Divine procedure, but there is the
distinct precept we have to obey. "Preachthe gospel."
II. WHY? Ancient predictions prepared us for this commission. Some say —
we all say— charity begins at home, so the commissionruns, "beginning at
Jerusalem." The apostles unfurled the banner of the cross atJerusalem, and
then went forth displaying it before all the world. Very soonafter they began
to preach at Jerusalemthe gospelwas proclaimedat Damascus,Ephesus,
Athens, Rome, and afterwards it extended to Macedonia,Spain, and Britain.
Does someone sayourown country needs all we can do to benefit mankind, all
our efforts and all our money, let us wait till all evil is rectified in our own
land? Then I would ask who are doing the most for their own land; are they
not generallyfound to be those who are doing most for other lands? But
cannot man be savedwithout hearing the gospel? Whytherefore go to them?
That might be said with reference to people here in England. Why preachat
home? If the objection holds goodin one case, itwould hold goodin the other.
"Go into all the world." But don't you increase the responsibility of a nation
when you make known to them the gospel, supposing they reject it? Is not the
man more guilty the more he knows? Suchan objectionwould apply equally
to preaching at home, so we should have no preaching at all. But if one
country in the world is well adapted for this particular systemof truth, there
are other countries that are altogetherdifferent from that country, and what
is fit for it cannot be goodfor the other. "Go ye into all the world." We keep
to our commission;the command is very clear. Well, but some countries are
too cold; their icy mountains frown awaythe fanatics who would go to those
shivering wretches gorging their blubber in their snow huts to try and explain
to them the mysteries of Christianity, "Go into all the world." But some
countries are too hot; the burning suns, scorching blast, and arid deserts
forbid the things that are suited to temperate climes. "Go into all the world."
But some nations are highly civilized, and don't need your gospelas savage
nations do. "Go into all the world." But some are two barbarous, eating one
another, and looking hungrily at you; it's madness to go and teachthem the
mysteries of Christianity. "Go into all the world." But some parts of the world
are the homes of ancient idolatries;their gods are visible, and their worship is

fortified by the indulgence of cruelty and lust. It is impossible to win such
nations to the pure worship of an invisible Spirit. "Go into all the world." But
some nations are the worshippers of one God with a comparatively pure form
of faith; why disturb them? "Go into all the world." But your religion of the
Westcannot be suited to the customs of the East. That which suits Anglo-
Saxons cannotsuit Orientals. But our religionhad its birthplace in the East.
Missionaries fromSyria first came to Britain; now we take back the gospel
that we receivedfrom them. The gospelhas been preachedthroughout the
world: it has gone back to Palestine, Egypt, Judea, Samaria, and the
uttermost parts of the earth. The Anglo-Saxonrace — the depositories of
Christianity — have spreadthrough the world; our commerce is in every
country, our ships sail over every sea, our language is spokenin every clime;
by the aid of printing, Bibles and books are multiplied in almostevery
language.
III. TO WHOM? "To every creature." Notonly to nations, you will observe,
as though we could convert a nation at once by gaining over the rulers and
their passing laws. No;"go and preachthe gospelto every creature."
Christianity is a personalthing. Believe thou the gospel. It is for every
creature. God would not invite to a banquet those for whom there was no
room. Yes, for "everycreature." Christ, who constitutes the gospel, is Divine,
and therefore infinite; if not Divine, and merely human, there would be a
limitation about His power. "To every creature." The most unlikely persons
to receive the gospelhave often been the first to acceptit. Publicans and
harlots enter the kingdom of heaven before some of those who seemedto be
far advancedon the way; therefore we are to preach, not only to barbarous
tribes as such, but to the most degradedspecimens of those tribes. What! to
this hoary-headedheathen whose heathenism is bound up in his very life?
"Every creature." What!to this fierce cannibal gloating over his victories?
"Every creature." What!to this wild tenant of the woods whose intellect
seems little above the intellect of the brutes; who seems as if he had no wishes
but the most debasedof his own debasedpeople. "To every creature." What!
to this man of cultivation? "Every creature." It is for sinners, and I am a
sinner. It is for all, and I am one of the all; and so, having receivedit, I publish
it to others.

(N. Hall, LL. B.)
STUDYLIGHT RESOURCES
Adam Clarke Commentary
Go ye into all the world - See on Matthew 28:19; (note).
And preach the Gospel to every creature - Proclaimthe glad tidings - of
Christ crucified; and raisedfrom the dead - to all the creation, πασῃ τῃ κτισει
- to the Gentile world; for in this sense ‫תוירב‬ berioth, is often understood
among the rabbins; because He, through the grace ofGod, hath tasteddeath
for Every man, Hebrews 2:9. And on the rejectionof the Gospelby the Jews,
it was sent to the whole Gentile world.
Albert Barnes'Notes onthe Whole Bible
Into all the world - To the Gentiles as well as the Jews. It was contrary to the
opinions of the Jews that the Gentiles should be admitted to the privileges of
the Messiah‘skingdom, or that the partition wall betweenthem should be
broken down. See Acts 22:21-22. It was long before the disciples could be
trained to the belief that the gospelwas to be preachedto all men; and it was
only by specialrevelation, even after this command, that Peterpreachedto
the Gentile centurion, Acts 10; Jesus has graciouslyorderedthat the
preaching of the gospelshall be stopped by no barriers. Whereverthere is
man, there it is to be proclaimed. To every sinner he offers life, and all the
world is included in the message ofmercy, and every child of Adam is offered
eternal salvation.
Preach- Proclaim;make known; offer. To do this to every creature is to offer
pardon and eternallife to him on the terms of the plan of mercy - through
repentance, and faith in the Lord Jesus.

The gospel - The goodnews. The tidings of salvation. The assurance that the
Messiahhas come, and that sin may be forgiven and the soul saved.
To every creature - That is, to every human being. Man has no right to limit
this offer to any class ofmen. Godcommands his servants to offer the
salvationto “all men.” If they reject, it is at their peril. God is not to blame if
they do not choose to be saved. His mercy is manifest; his grace is boundless in
offering life to a creature so guilty as man.
The Biblical Illustrator
Mark 16:15
Go ye into an the world and preachthe gospel.
Christ’s commissionto His apostles
I. The work. Preaching the gospel.
1. Speaking. Muchof the real and useful work of life is wrought by words.
They are the tools of almostevery workerin some department of his toil. In
preaching the gospelthey are the chief agency.
2. The gospel. Gospel, in the lips of Jesus, representedfacts in the eternal past
and in the eternalfuture-promises, predictions, His own history, dispensations
of the grace ofGod, and certainaspects ofthe government of God; and gospel,
to the ears of the eleven, representedthe same central truths, with the outlying
truths unrevealed, so that they could not mistake what Jesus meant when He
said, “Preachthe gospel.”
3. A new work this. Not preaching merely-that was old enough; but preaching
the gospel.
4. A Divine work. Commencedby God Himself. A work which claims high
esteemfor all engagedin it; a work in which the loftiest ambition may be

satiated;a work whose results surpass in blessedness the creationof earth and
heaven.
II. The workmen.
1. Men of little refinement or education. This gave them sympathy with the
common people, if not influence over them.
2. Men of ordinary secularoccupations.
3. Greatvarieties of natural characteramong them. No two were alike. Yet
these very different men were calledto do the same work. The same gospel
may be preached in very different styles with equal success.
4. They had receivedspecialtraining for their specialwork. As more was
expectedfrom them than from others, more had been done for them.
5. Yet they were far from being perfect men. Just before this commissionwas
addressedto them they were upbraided by Christ with their unbelief and
hardness of heart. A perfectman or a perfect preacheris not necessaryfor the
preaching of a perfectgospel.
6. Although not perfectmen, they were men to whom specialpromises were
made-promises of the presence ofChrist and of the Holy Ghost-promises of
power.
7. They were representative men, foundation men, men who had to begin what
others should carry on.
III. The sphere of work. The whole world. No limitations of country or
climate; no distinctions of barbarism and civilization, bondage and freedom,
preparedness or otherwise ofparticular peoples. Whereverthere were men
these workmen were to go. “Every creature”-foreverycreature hath sinned,
and every creature is guilty before God, and every creature is going astray,
and every creature is liable to punishment. For every creature there is gospel
enough and to spare. What a glorious sphere for working-the world, man,

men, all men, every creature!And what work!These workmenare builders of
a temple that shall fill the world, and stewards of wealthwhich shall enrich
the world, and ambassadors upon an errand of supreme importance to the
world, and sowers in the field of the world, by whose agencythe wilderness
shall become a fruitful field, men shall be reconciledto God, the poor shall
become heirs of God, and “the tabernacle of God,” etc. (Revelation21:3-4).
IV. The master of the workmen. He who saith “Go,” came into the world. He
who saith “Go ye,” Himself came:came not by deputy or proxy, but Himself
came. He who saith “Go ye and preach,” Himself preached. He who saith “Go
ye and preach the gospel,” is the gospel. He who saith “Go into the world to
every creature,” is the propitiation for the sins of the world. With such a
Masterthe lack of willing workmenis truly wonderful. Shall we neglectto
obey? Shall we undervalue obedience as a means of redemption to others? All
cannot preach, but all can repeatthe faithful saying, that Jesus Christcame
into the world to save sinners, and all can unite in sending forth men qualified
to preach, and in sustaining such men by contributions of property, by
manifestations of sympathy, and by prayer. (S. Martin, D. D.)
Missionaryzeal
A raggedschoolteacherwentout into the lanes of our city to bring in
neglectedchildren. He found a child, the very incarnation of wickedness and
wretchedness, andled her to the school. There she heard expounded and
applied the parable of the prodigal son. Shortly after the child was seizedby
fever, and the teachervisited her. In one of his visits he read this parable, and
when he came to the words, “Whenhe was yet a greatway off his father saw
him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissedhim,” the
child exclaimed, “Ah, that was just like me! That’s good; sayit again-‘a great
way off!’ What, ever so far, away, away, like me with the devil? That must be
far from God and the Lamb. Yes! I was a greatway off. How good!how kind!
But I’m afraid! have been worse than that bad son. Still, I have said ‘Dear
Jesus, I want to love you, I want to getawayfrom the devil; please help me.’
And I think He heard me, for I have felt somehow different ever since. I am

not afraid now; no, not one bit.” When death was so near that it was supposed
that all power of utterance was gone, she arousedherself, and said, in a clear
and distinct voice, evidently referring to destitute children allowedstill to
wander through the streets and lanes of the city: “Fetchthem in; oh, be sure
and fetch them in! Fetch them in and tell them of Jesus, tellthem of Jesus;oh,
be sure and fetch them in.” (S. Martin, D. D.)
The apostolic commission
I. This commissionis most important in its nature. Consider-
1. Its Divine origin.
2. Its adaptation to the circumstances ofmankind.
3. Its efficiency.
4. Its individuality.
One and the same salvation for all and each. One common remedy for the
universal disease. If there were some given place where all must needs be, and
many roads led to it. It would not be essentiallyimportant which we took;but
if there were but one road which would conduct the traveller to the place
where all should be, how carefully should that road be sought! And is not
Christ the only way to heaven?
II. This commissionis legitimate in its authority. It is the command of the
King of kings, and Lord of lords. And His authority is twofold.
1. It is official-by delegationfrom His Father.
2. It is essential. Authority without control.
III. This commissionis official in its execution. It is to be done by preaching.
There is a specialcommissionfor those sent out to preach.

1. The preacher must have a personalrealization of the benefits of the gospel
in his own heart. How canan unbeliever inculcate faith? How can an
impenitent man callsinners to repentance?
2. The preacher must have an ardent love to the fallen souls of men.
3. He must have a solemn, heartfelt impression, that the Author of the gospel
requires this at his hands.
4. He must have suitable qualifications.
5. He must have the sanctionof his brethren in the ministry.
IV. This commissionis universal in its extent.
1. Universal in point of place.
2. Universal in point of persons.
Conclusion:
1. This subjectenables us to meet the infidel objectionwhich is urged against
the gospelonthe ground of its partial diffusion. This is not God’s fault. He
commands that His salvation be proclaimed to the ends of the world.
2. How loud is the call on our gratitude that the gospelhas been proclaimed to
us.
3. How imperative is the obligation that we hand it on to others. (R. Newton.)
Reasonsfor the preaching of the gospel
I. The world knows not God. By its own wisdom it cannot find Him out.
Instruction needed which God alone can impart. God has imparted the
knowledge ofDivine things to some, and ordered them to convey that
knowledge to the restof the world.

II. The temporal miseries of the heathen are very great. To what torture do
they submit in their blind devotion to false gods! Hastento leadthem out of
their ignorance and superstition into the light of the knowledge ofthe only
true God.
III. The woe that awaits them beyond the grave. What an education for
eternity is theirs!
IV. The Gospelis the power of God to everyone who receives it. (H. Townley.)
The duty of Christians with respectto missions
I. The nature of this command.
II. The extent of this command.
III. The period when this command was given. (J. Langley, M. A.)
Goodnews for you
I. The Gospelis a revelation of love. Is there not sunshine enoughin the sky
for your daily paths, and is there not enough waterin the oceanto bear your
small craft? The love of God is like the sunshine, and His goodness is like the
ocean;there is enough for you; and if you will but take the gospelas meant for
you, His greatlove shall be shed abroad in your heart by the powerof the
Holy Ghost.

II. The Gospelalso is a provision of peace. It takes the sting from trouble; it
takes the pain from sickness;it breathes to all, hope, paradise, joy. And it
imparts peace atall times. Whereveryou are, whatsoeveryou may be, and
through whateveryou may pass, the gospelgives you a peace that sustains you
safely. Like yonder impregnable British fortress at Gibraltar, so God’s peace
shall keepyou. The waves may dash againstthat ancient fortress, and guns
may burst their fireballs upon it, but that rock is impregnable; held by British
hearts it shall stand againstall the foes of the world. So God’s peace shall
enter your soul, and keepyou in all the trials and storms of life.
III. The Gospelis a callto liberty. What is it that causes men to feelthe pain
of guilt? it is that they are afraid of being discovered;they are afraid of men
pointing the finger of scorn at them. But how blessedto know that when we
stand before the bar of God all our sins shall be blotted out.
IV. The Gospelis an inspiration of power. It tells us that the Lord shall stand
up in your heart and raise a standard, which shall hurl back the flood of sin.
Howevergreatthe torrent may be the Lord shall breathe power to check it.
V. The Gospelis the inspiration of power to be holy. We cannot in our own
strength run the heavenly race;but Jesus enters into us, abides in our hearts,
and gives us His own almighty strength.
VI. The Gospelalso offers a presentjoy. Blessings, mercies, pardon, peace-all
to be had now.
VII. The Gospelconstrains us to love God, and to live holy lives, by the most
powerful motive. What canconstrain us like the love of Jesus?(W. Birch.)
Life in the gospel

I. The Gospelis brought to us by Jesus, our kinsman.
II. In the GospelJesus reveals to us the characterof God. When you hold a
magnet to a little bit of steelthe two are drawn together, on accountof some
mysterious affinity betweenthem. So, when a sincere mind examines the way
to God pointed out by Jesus in the Gospel, and we are true as steelto the
Saviour magnet, we are drawn to the breastof our God.
III. The chief gem of the Gospelis, that every human being is forgiven. We
forgive men after they have beggedus to do so, but God forgives men before
they ask.
IV. Every man who sincerelybelieves the Gospelshall be savedfrom the
powerof his sin. Salvation is not a varnish to hide our blemishes; it is a new
spirit which roots out every sin.
V. The Gospelis for every man. (W. Birch.)
Preach, preach, preacheverywhere
I. What it is that we have to carry to every creature. The greattruth that
“Godwas in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.” What is meant by
the word preach? Its meaning is extensive. It includes all church work for the
spread of the gospel.
II. What is the extent of this commission? No limit as to where this gospelis to
be preached. No limit as to the persons to whom it is to be preached.

III. The inducement to enlist in this service and obey this command. God has
said it. It is a delight to God. By it the electare to be gatheredout. We should
do it for our own sakes. Because Jesus wills it.
IV. What powers have we to work with and how canwe do it? If all cannot
preach, yet they may either teachthe young or influence their own
households. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
“Up, guards, and at them”
Searchye out, and look what you cando, and whatsoeveryour hand findeth
to do, do with all your might, for the grave will soonopen for you, and there is
no work nor device in the grave whither you are hastening. “Up, guards, and
at them,” was said in the day of battle, and I may say it to every Christian. We
shall not bless the world by big schemes, mighty theories, gigantic plans. Little
by little grows the coralreef on which afterwards gardens are to be planted.
Little by little must the kingdom come, eachman bringing his mite and laying
it down at Jesus’feet. So breaks the light. Beamby beam it comes. One by one
come the arrows from the bow of the sun, and at last darkness flies. So, so
must break the everlasting morn. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
“Compelthem to come in”
He would be a poor sportsman who would sit in his house and expectthe game
to come to him. He that would have it must go abroad for it, and he that
would serve his Mastermust go into the highways and hedges, and compel
them to come in. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A greatwork
Oh, church of God! thy Lord has given thee a work almost as immense as the
creationof a world; nay, it is a greaterwork than that; it is to recreate a
world. What canstthou do in this? Thou canst do nothing effectivelyunless
the Holy Spirit shall bless what thou attemptest to do. But that He wilt do, and
if thou dost gird up thy loins, and thy heart be warm in this endeavour, thou

shalt yet be able to preach Jesus Christto every creature under heaven. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
The greatcommission
I. It is implied that there is at last a Gospelin the world; not a history merely,
not a philosophy, but a gospel-a wayof salvationfor dying men; a finished
thing, to which nothing is to be added, and from which nothing is to be taken.
II. This commissionto preach the gospelto all the world also implies the
continuity of the Church as a preaching, teaching body.
III. The extensionand establishment of the gospelthrough the world, till it
everywhere comes to be a dominant power in society, is an obligationon our
part in whateverlight we examine it.
1. Considerthe gospelas relatedto whateveris bestin human civilization.
Civilization is but a secularname for Christianity itself. Popular education
comes from the gospel. As the dignity of man is realized there comes a
liberalizing of government, and tyrannic dynasties are overthrown. Domestic
felicity, literature and art, are aided by the gospel.
2. But beyond all this look at the spiritual wants of man to which the gospel
ministers. It transfigures man’s whole life.
3. Recallthe new impressions which we ourselves have receivedof the
greatness andvalue of the gospel. We have felt its inspiring energy in our own
hearts.
4. Thus we enter the fellowship of the noblest souls of earth-a societygrander
than that of a mere intellectual companionship-even with the ancient martyrs.
But best of all, the execution of this greatcommissionbrings us into fellowship
with Jesus Christ, in His unique and royal work. (R. S. Storrs, D. D.)

Every Christian a preacher
It is often said that there are not preachers enough to meet the demands of the
land and of the world. That may be true. But every living Christian is a
preacher. Every prayerful, earnest, godly life is a sermon. There are a
hundred ways of preaching Jesus without choosing a Bible text or standing in
a pulpit. A Wilberforce could proclaim the gospelof love on the floor of the
British Parliament, even though he wore no surplice and never had a bishop’s
hand laid upon his honoured head. George H. Stuart was an apostle of the
cross whenhe organizedthe Christian commissionfor soldiers’tents; and
John Macgregorwas anotherwhen he organized the “Shoe-black Brigades”
in the streets of London. Hannah More preached Christ in the drawing room,
and Elizabeth Fry in prison cells, and Florence Nightingale in the hospitals,
and SarahF. Smiley among the negro freedmen of the South. Our Master
scatters His commissions very widely. Harlan Page dropping the tract and the
kind word through the city workshops;John Wanamaker, the Christian
merchant, mustering poor children into his “Bethany” mission house;James
Lennox, giving his gold to build churches and hospitals;the Dairyman’s
Daughter, murmuring the name of Jesus with her faint, dying voice;George
Muller, housing and feeding God’s orphans-all these were effective and
powerful preachers of the glorious gospelofthe Son of God. There is a poor
needlewomanin my congregationwhose unselfish, cheerful, holy life
impresses me as much as any pulpit messageofmine can possibly impress her.
A true and noble life is the mightiest of discourses.It is the sermons in shoes
that must convert the world to Jesus, if it is ever to be converted. (Dr. Cuyler.)
To every creature
Christ’s own word for it, come with me to that scene in Jerusalemwhere the
disciples are bidding Him farewell. Calvary, with all its horrors, is behind
Him; Gethsemane is over, and Pilate’s judgment hall. He has passedthe
grave, and is about to take His place at the right hand of the Father. Around
Him stands His little band of disciples, the little church He was to leave to be
His witnesses. The hour of parting has come, and He has some “lastwords”
for them. Is He thinking about Himself in these closing moments? Is He
thinking about the throne that is waiting Him, and the Father’s smile that will

welcome Him to heaven? Is He going over in memory the scenes ofthe past;
or is He thinking of the friends who have followed Him so far, who will miss
Him so much when He is gone? No, He is thinking about you. You imagined
He would think of those who loved Him? No, sinner, He thought of you then.
He thought of His enemies, those who shunned Him, those who despisedHim,
those who killed Him-He thought what more He could do for them. He
thought of those who world hate Him, of those who would have none of His
gospel, ofthose who would sayit was too goodto be true, of those who would
make excuse that He never died for them. And then turning to His disciples,
His heart just bursting with compassion, He gives them His farewellcharge:
“Go ye into all the world and preach the gospelto every creature.” Theyare
almost His last words, “to every creature.” (D. L. Moody.)
Preachthe gospel
When we ask in these days what does this injunction mean, the answers which
come to us, from within and from without the Church, are many and
discordant. As in the earliesttimes of Christianity there were pseudo-gospels,
counterfeits, and forgeries, so it is now.
I. Among these pseudo-gospels outside the pale of the Church we have-
1. The gospelof reason;the idea that man, by his own mental power, is
rapidly acquiring a newer and truer wisdom, which is to make the world
happier and better than it has ever been. It is a religion of the head, not the
heart; it cannot therefore apprehend spiritual verities.
2. The easy, plausible gospelof universal toleration and philanthropy, which
assumes and abuses the sacredname of love. Indifferent altogetherfor truth,
caring only for expediency. Anything for peace.
3. The gospel of sentiment-the religion which very much resembles those
pictures in which the cross is almost hidden by gay colouredflowers-satisfying
itself with music, sensationalpreaching, controversialreading, and much
speaking, but shirking the plain uninteresting duties of daily life, and doing no
real work for others, for the soul, and for God.

Jesus was the sender of the gospel to all

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