Teaching Them To Observe All Things

Teaching them to observe all things– Matthew 28:18-20 & Mark 14:22-25

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Last week we spoke about the subject of Evangelism. We pointed out that an Evangelist is a preacher called by God to go out and win souls for Christ. Eph 4:11-12 says that the “He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ

Are all apostles? Are all Evangelist? Are all Pastors & Teachers? Obviously not but just because a Christian isn’t an “Evangelist” per se, we all have the responsibility to live out the great commission. We should all share the Gospel, we should all be baptized, we should all study the Word of God, we should all support this work if we are to be faithful to the marching orders that Jesus gave.

In looking at the subject of Evangelism we said it requires certain things Compassion, Effort and Commitment. It requires compassion not only for people and their day to day needs, it requires a compassion for their soul. All men are born sinners therefore all are lost in their natural condition – if we as Christians don’t care about their lost condition NOBODY ELSE WILL!

So it takes compassion, it also takes Effort! In order for somebody to be converted to Christ it takes work since somebody has to put in the time to spread the word! Romans 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

Even if you don’t preach from the pulpit on Sunday Morning it still takes work to search the Scriptures so that you know what you’re talking about! It also takes effort to engage people in conversations in order to get through to them and this brings us to the next thing – Commitment! Anybody who has ever witnessed to another person knows that 9 out of 10 people reject the message. Without commitment, without resolve we would give up, and we cannot afford to give up – how can we give up when the world is on its way to hell?

So last week we spoke about those things that drive us to Evangelize. At this point I would like to take a closer look at Matthew 28:18-20 and I would like to see how it applies to the local church. No doubt it speaks of the work of the Apostles, no doubt it speaks about how the local church should support Evangelism and Missions (which we do) but how does it apply to us personally and how does it apply to those who we speak to about the Lord?

Matt 28:18 - And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. So right away we see that Jesus has all authority, so when He speaks He is speaking authoritatively, that is we are not given the option to do whatever we want. Jesus isn’t giving The Great Suggestion – He is giving the Great Commission – and we need to follow it! So what are we to do?

Go ye therefore, He doesn’t say sit around and hope for the best, He doesn’t say don’t worry about, He doesn’t say just pray about it and then don’t do anything – NO! He says GO!

and teach all nations, Lets park it on this exhortation for a moment. God certainly calls many people to the mission field, but he doesn’t call every believer to travel the globe. We need Christians to do this work right here in our Country and in our community. If you live in this nation, if you live in this county then teach the people of this county.

I believe the teaching mentioned here is the simple teaching of the Gospel. This is where it starts – we get people to recognize their sin and their need for a Savior. We tell them of the death & resurrection of Jesus and call them to believe upon His name. That’s where it starts. You cannot go to step # 2 unless you accomplish step # 1 so once a person accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior then you go to step # 2