The Great Commandment Not The Great Suggestion

THE GREAT COMMANDMENT

NOT THE GREAT SUGGESTION

Mark 16:15-20 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. [16] He who believes and is baptised will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. [17] And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; [18] they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." [19] So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. [20] And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.

Verse fifteen is the Great Commandment "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" and the early Christian Church did that with a passion.

Why?

Because they believed it.

They knew that Jesus had come from heaven

They knew that Jesus had died for them

They knew that Jesus had risen from the dead

They knew that Jesus had gone back to "heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God"

They knew that Jesus was coming back agin the same way He had left.

This gave them the passion to reach out to the lost.

They had a first hand encounter with the living resurrected God who had "come to seek and save that which was lost" as Luke 19:10 tells us.

Sadly over time apart from times of revival most in the church have taken that Great Commandment and turned it into The Great Suggestion

They believe that’s up to the Pastor or some Evangelist to do, I am not called to evangelise, that’s not my calling.

My friends I am here to burst that bubble this morning.

THE GREAT COMMANDMENT IS NOT THE GREAT SUGGESTION

We are all called to declare the Gospel to ever creature.

You might say but that was OK for the disciples in the Bible after all they had a first hand encounter with Jesus.

Well that is not true

Many including Paul did not see Jesus in the flesh, Paul just heard a voice speak to him and that changed him forever and caused him to declare the Gospel as far and wide as he was able.

Paul and many who were saved after Jesus had ascended into heaven got hold of the words of Jesus

Luke 19:10 "for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."

They understood the lost state of man kind and did something about it. They got a passion for the thing that Jesus was passionate about that is "that which was lost."

Sadly many of us get around with little or no concern for the lost.

The other day my wife Elaine lost a pair of earings that we had bought overseas she had been searching for them off and on for several days but could not find them. I said why don’t we pray about it, which we did, I felt that the Lord was saying they were under the bed, so I had a look but could not see them.

Elaine got the same thing but she looked between the bed and the side cupboard which was obscured from my site when I looked. Sure enough she found them

I thought well may be I had not heard from God but as it turned out we both heard from God but Elaine was motivated to look further because they were of more value to her.

MY FRIENDS THE LOST ARE OF GREAT VALUE TO GOD THAT’S THE REASON JESUS CAME.

YOU and I were lost and Jesus sent someone to each one of us to declare the Gospel so that we to could be saved.

Where would you and I be if that person had said to them selves, O that’s just a suggestion God does not mean for me to go and tell Bruce about the Gospel.

You see my wife and I did not come back to church through a personal invitation but a young boy had been speaking to our son Glenn about going to Boys Brigade and it was through that we all came back to church and became born again.

Then a young man in the church dared to ask if we would like to do a bible study. I know at the time Elaine thought that I would refuse and in the natural I would have. But God had done a work on my heart and I said Yes and the rest is history.