Temple Baptist Church - 8-23-2026
Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8
Introduction:
Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. (19) Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: (20) Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. (We are not Calvinists, Reformed Theology) which is a Satanic doctrine. Christ died for the sins of the whole world, and it is His will that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth! 1 Timothy 2:4)
Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (Witnessing starts at home and spreads to the uttermost part of the earth in an orderly fashion.)
A. Over the past couple of Sundays, I have been looking at the Purpose of the local church and its members. In these last days, so many churches have lost their way as what they are to stand for and do. The Internal Purpose of the local church is:
1. To Gather. We need exhortation and to exhort one another!
2. To Glorify. We need to magnify the Word of God which glorifies the Son of God!
3. To Grow. When we stop going, we stop growing spiritually and begin to decline spiritually!
a) Feed our Flock.
b) Grow our People.
c) Encourage our Discouraged.
d) Restore our Fallen.
e) Protect our Children.
4. To Go. Every child of God is commissioned to Go! “Both” means personally at home and to the “uttermost” through missions! We are all vital to the work we are sent to do!
B. God keeps telling us, through the Bible, to seek and return to the Old Paths wherein is the good way, but not the popular one.
Jeremiah 6:16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
Therefore, we find that the Old Paths are not popular and are adversarial! There are a “world” of things that capture our attention or thwart our return: family, friends, finances, and foes in general.
C. The external work of the local church is “witness and both” (Our Lord said “both” which means simultaneous). In general, supporting missions! By doing so, we can reach the uttermost, the outlying regions of the world. To go into all the world and preach the gospel, as every creature needs a preacher!
Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations …
D. The second part of the external work of the local church is personal witnessing. We owed a debt that we could not pay, and Christ paid a debt He did not owe! Now, we have become debtors. Paul said:
Romans 1:14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. (Someone or something was instrumental to your salvation. Aren’t you glad that you are saved this morning and heaven will be your eternal home? We owe this world the same!)
Romans 10:14-15 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? (15) And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
E. I find it of great interest that so many of the great song writers were women. Margaret Clarkson told this story about her most famous hymn, "So Send I You":
When I graduated as a teacher in 1935, jobs were so scarce that I had to go to the far north of Ontario to get work. Seven long years were to pass before I could move to a position in my home city of Toronto. I was reading in John’s gospel one cold night in February, 1938, in the mining town of Kirkland Lake where I was teaching, when suddenly the words of John 20:21 leaped from the page. As I pondered on their significance, God seemed to speak to me. I had long known that because of a physical disability I could never go to the mission field, but that night God seemed to say to me that this lonely spot was where he had put me—my mission field. I wrote the first version of "So Send I You" that evening. Little did I think that it would one day be sung all over the world as a missionary hymn!
The words to the first verse of this song are these:
So send I you to labor unrewarded,
To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown,
To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing—
So send I you to toil for Me alone.
Every Christian does not go to the foreign mission field, but every Christian is commissioned and sent to carry the gospel everywhere and share it with everyone he meets. Just as Jesus willingly came to this world to be our Savior, we must be willing to take His message to those who still have not heard, regardless of the cost.
F. The personal, external work of each individual is threefold: we witness in three ways, with our Lives, with our Lips, and with our Literature.
1. With our Lives. I do not know who coined the words “A life lived is worth a thousand sermons preached,” but it is so true. If our lives do not reflect Christ, then all else fails at that point. Our Lord said at the Sermon on the Mount:
Matthew 5:13-16 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. (14) Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. (15) Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. (16) Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
a. We are to be Salt. Salt gives the world Desire. Salt is both for savour and preservation. I wonder what kind of spiritual taste we leave in the hearts and minds of those around us. If you are not going to act like a Christian, do not say that you are one. We hear so much about hypocrites these days because professing Christians to not act like it!
1 John 1:5-6 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (6) If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
b. We are to be Light. Light gives Direction. Our Light shines ever so brightly in the spiritual darkness of the world in which we live.
Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
2. With our Lips. Salt and Light open the way of verbal witness while failure in those two things seal the lips of witness. The door of verbal witness is ever so important.
a. Because this world confuses the lost as to what salvation is. They are being taught that baptism, communion, good works, and a myriad of other things, according to which “ism” or “schism” they ask, will add or take away from the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus.
2 Corinthians 11:1-4 Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. (2) For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. (3) But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. (4) For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus (who is neither holy or Lord) whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit (which operates in disobedience to the Scriptures), which ye have not received, or another gospel (adding to or removing from), which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
b. They need to know and understand that salvation is a relationship based upon repentance and faith in a finished work, the Gospel. I often say, “If going to church will make you a Christian, sleeping in a garage will make you an automobile!”
1 Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
c. The importance of a verbal witness: the lost need to know what the Word of God says. Notice the questions asked:
Romans 10:14-17 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? (15) And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! (16) But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? (17) So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
3. With our Literature. Bible based gospel tracts are available on the tract rack beside of the front door! Why the stressing of handing out gospel tracts?
a. Because it is something that all can do! You may not think that you can adequately express what you have in your heart. Just tell them how you were saved! If nothing else, put a gospel tract in their hand or in the envelope along with a bill.
b. Because there are times when there is no time for a gospel presentation. At work, at a grocery store, at some event, or otherwise.
c. There will be many times when it is not convenient to witness verbally, therefore, “tract” them!
Conclusion: “Go ye” is the second part of the external work of the local church!
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