An International Invitation

“Praise the Lord, all nations!  Extol Him, all peoples!  For great is His steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.  Praise the Lord!” –Psalm 117 (ESV).

I find it very encouraging that the shortest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 117, with just two verses, is an invitation for all peoples everywhere to recognize God’s steadfast love and faithfulness and to praise Him. 

The hope recurs in the Psalms as well as in the remaining 65 books of the Bible that the Gentiles will come to belief in the one true God.  Paul the Apostle quoted Psalm 117:1 in Romans 15:11, and then launched into his reasons why he became a “minister to the Gentiles.”  At the heart of Christian missions lies God’s love for and inclusion of all peoples in His plan of redemption. Paul again quoted from the Old Testament in Romans 15:21:  “Those who have never been told of Him will see, and those who have never heard will understand” (quoting Isaiah 52:15)

Christian missions is at the heart of everyone internationally hearing, understanding and coming to salvation in Christ.  When Jesus was ready to ascend into heaven, after His mission of redemption was completed, He gathered with His disciples and other believers on a hillside outside Jerusalem.  He was ready to ascend back to the Father in Heaven, but He had a final word for believers.  In this powerful message He repeated what He had told them was their major task:  “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20. ESV).

In my church and denomination, we have a special missions emphasis throughout the month of December.  It is a time of remembering that Christ came to earth at Christmastime because God loved all the world.  Because of this love, we in turn have the responsibility to follow through on the Lord’s Great Commission to us to make disciples of all nation, to go and spread abroad the Good News of salvation, to make disciples, to baptize believers, and to teach converts  how to live the Christian way.  A timely theme has been selected for this December’s missions emphasis.  It is “Be Obedient:  Be His Heart, Be His Hands, Be His Voice.”  With that theme we hear victorious accounts of how God is touching lives throughout the world because missionaries are being obedient servants—going, making disciples, baptizing and teaching—as ambassadors of Christ whose heart, hands and voice they (and we) are.  We can have a vital part in this international invitation as we are faithful where we live and work in our own Christian witness and as we give of our means to support missions.

Prayer.  As we refresh our minds on God’s wonderful invitation to all peoples, may we rejoice that we can share through witnessing where we are, praying for those who go as missionaries, and giving our money to support missions.  Thank you that in being obedient we are Your heart, hands and voice to others. In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Post-Resurrection Appearances: The Great Commission to the Disciples

“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him they worshiped Him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”-Matthew 28:16-20 (ESV).

Some scholars equate this appearance of Jesus on the mountain in Galilee as being the same as what Paul the Apostle wrote about in I Corinthians 15:6: “Then He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.” With this explanation, those who “doubted” in the group would not have been Jesus’ inner circle of eleven disciples, but others in the crowd who doubted, even seeing Him, that He had arisen from the dead. But this appearance is crucial, and giving the Great Commission is recorded in Mark 15:15, Luke 24:47-48 and Acts 1:8. It was the disciples’ “marching orders,” their command from the Lord to make known to all nations the Truth revealed and entrusted to them to be made known to all people. All who have become Christians since that day when Jesus gave this great commission to His disciples in Galilee have been blessed to be bearers of the good news. It came to us on the way to others; we still are subject to obey and proclaim the wonderful news of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Jesus had the authority to give such a commission. Through His life, His death, His burial and resurrection, and especially through His fulfilling the Father’s will to be the bearer of grace and restoration to all mankind, Jesus had the power to order His disciples to be message bearers. We may obey Him without fear. Many have been called out and commissioned since that wonderful day in Galilee when Jesus first assigned his disciples the joyful task of going and telling all people about Him. The very nature of the Christian faith is to want to share it. Well do I remember, at age nine when I met the Lord in forgiveness of sins and commitment of my life to Him, how I wanted to tell others. At school the next day after my decision in revival meeting, I shared with several how happy I was that I was a Christian. I really didn’t know very much about witnessing, because I had not had classes in it, having been a Christian less than a day. But I could share the peace and joy I felt in my heart, and how I knew without a doubt that Jesus had accepted me as one of His own! Some of my cousins and friends to whom I talked at recess at school also accepted the Lord in that same revival. When our pastor led the converts later into the cold waters of the Nottely River to receive believers’ baptism, (for we didn’t have a baptistry at that time in our church), there were twenty-three of us lined up to follow the Lord in baptism. Adults and children alike were in that long line of believers. And as we attended and were taught by faithful teachers in that church, we grew in faith and knowledge of the Word. I have been grateful since that long-ago time when I became a part of a missions-believing church that God has led me to seek to follow the Great Commission through love of others who need to hear, and through giving and going. When I was seventeen years of age, at a Christian encampment, I heard and responded to the call of Christ on my own life to dedicate myself to His service. The Great Commission was made so personal as we heard a challenging speaker, Miss Sarah Stephens, give the claims of Christ on those who would “go and tell,” that I thought surely the Lord was calling me to foreign mission service. But in the course of time His will for me was to marry a minister of the gospel. Instead of going as career missionaries to a foreign land, we were to stay in the states and “hold the ropes” for others to go by promoting mission causes, encouraging others to go, and seeking to lead the churches Grover pastored and the associations he led as director of missions to be more involved in missions. Looking back over many decades of thus serving the Lord, I can only rejoice that when I was very young He called me to be a Christian and to be aware of His claim on my life. When I have been tempted to turn aside from His personal Great Commission for me, the Holy Spirit has wooed and prodded me to get back into the will of God for my life. Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, a notable preacher of the last century, told about visiting a group of ladies once a week to read and study the Bible with them. He read from Matthew’s gospel: “And behold I am with you always, to the end of the age.” He said to them, “Isn’t that a wonderful promise?” And a wise lady responded, “Preacher, that’s not a promise, that’s a fact!” Yes! It is a fact that Jesus is with us when we faithfully bear His word and witness to others!

Holy Week Day-by-Day – Sunday, the First Day of the Week-Resurrection!

“Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus Who was crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead, and behold, He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him. See, I have told you. So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell His disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, ‘Greetings!” and they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.” –Matthew 28:1-10 (ESV).

It was not yet good light; the dawn was just breaking and shadows of darkness played about the garden tomb. Sorrow and fear walked with the two women, Mary Magdalene ‘and the other Mary,’ female disciples of Jesus, last at the tomb on Friday, first at the tomb on Sunday. They were afraid. I would have been too, going early before good day, and then being shaken by a reverberating earthquake! How strange to be greeted by such shaking and clattering of the earth. And fear overtook them again, for seated there upon the great gravestone was an extraterrestrial being whose garments glowed in the half-light like lightning. Even the strong, burly Roman guards lay on the ground, out cold, like dead men!

But when the angel spoke, for by now the women realized the person meant them only good and not harm, they listened, for his message reechoed what Jesus Himself had told them before He died: “Fear not!...He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay.” And with that I can imagine that the angel stepped aside, inviting Mary Magdalene and Mary to step up to the tomb and look in.

Matthew does not give these details, but accounts of the resurrection in other gospels tell us that the grave clothes lay there on the rock ledge where the body had been—as though the corpse of Jesus, now alive, had just escaped from them and left the clothes lying in the tomb. And folded, the napkin, or handkerchief, that had covered Jesus’ face was placed neatly to the side. With all the excitement of the angel’s message, the women would not have had time to give more than a cursory glance into the tomb. But later, they would remember an important aspect of the neatly-folded napkin: It lay folded in readiness, a sign that the Master would be back again; He had not gone far away.

Listen, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the angel has directions for you, an important errand for you to run: “”Go quickly and tell His disciples He has risen from the dead! Tell them to go to Galilee; there He will meet them!” What joy, what delight! The Marys did not need their urns of burial ointment and spices they had so lovingly brought to embalm the body. No dead body was there to receive the embalming.

They left the garden grave, excited and exulting that they had such a message to give to the disciples! And as they rushed through the garden, behold, Jesus Himself met them and said, “Greetings!” There was no mistaking that voice! No one ever spake like Jesus speaks. They fell to His feet, worshiping Him! But He, like the angel, had a message for them to bear, “Go! Tell My disciples that I am alive. I will meet them in Galilee! Do not be afraid!”

Each of the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection is slightly different. We are not to wonder at the different approaches four different writers took to recount this most marvelous of occasions—Jesus rising from the dead! It is the central truth of the gospel story, the Word, the Lord, alive and victorious, as He had said. For my edification and amazement, I am reading each account today, allowing the Holy Spirit to teach me all facets and views of the great truths of the resurrection accounts in Matthew 28:1-10: in Mark 16:1-11; in Luke 24:1-12; and in John 20:1-18. I pray that you, dear reader, will take the time to do the same. Because Christ is victorious over death, we, too, know assuredly that death is not the end. That the soul is quickened to new life. “O grave, whre is thy victory? O death, where is they sting?” (I Corinthians 15:55, KJV).

Matthew has Mary Magdalene and the other Mary meeting the angel and being greeted by the living Lord. Mark records three women, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bringing spices and hearing the news from a young man dressed in a white robe." Mark later records His appearance to Mary Magdalene. In Luke’s account, they (meaning the women mentioned being last at the tomb on Friday) came with prepared spices to find the stone rolled away and a man in dazzling apparel giving them the news of the risen Christ. Luke identifies these women as Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and “the other women” (Luke 24:10). But when the women told the disciples, they didn’t believe. Peter himself went, and saw the grave clothes as the women had said. He had to see for himself. Then he marveled at what had happened. In John’s account, Mary Magdalene went first, saw the tomb empty, and ran to tell Peter and ‘the other disciple’ (John). They rushed to the tomb, saw the grave clothes, the napkin folded neatly, and John “saw and believed” (v. 8). Peter and John returned to their homes, but Mary remained in the garden, and Christ appeared to her, calling her by name and asking her to go and tell His disciples that He was alive.

So many poems, songs and hymns, essays and books have been written about the resurrection. Myriad are the accounts of Jesus conquering death, not only that of the gospel writers, but many throughout the ages since. On Easter around the world Christians celebrate anew the glory of the cross where Jesus died and the majesty of the empty tomb where Jesus shed the bonds of death and rose victorious. Millions of voices on Easter proclaim the words of the gospel hymn written by Alfred H. Ackley (1887-1960):

“I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today;
I know that He is living, whatever men may say;
I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer,
And just the time I need Him, He’s always near.
He lives! He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way;
He lives! He lives! Salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives:
He lives within my heart!”