Matthew 28:18-20
Evangelizing Sinners Verbally, Part 1
In 'Evangelizing Sinners Verbally, Part 1,' Pastor Albert N. Martin expounds on the church's evangelistic mandate, emphasizing that it involves both a radically different lifestyle and the verbal proclamation of the Gospel. He defines the Gospel as divinely revealed, objective, inscripturated truth, comprising 'magnificent indicatives' (Christ's death, burial, and resurrection for sins) and 'magisterial imperatives' (repentance and belief). Drawing from passages like Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 1:14-15, and Acts 17:30, Martin argues for the universal scope of this mandate, urging believers to be 'world Christians' and to evangelize in their homes, neighborhoods, workplaces, and to the ends of the earth.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 8 sections · 61 min
- Introduction: The Church's Purpose and Evangelistic Mandate 0:02
- The Two Sides of Biblical Evangelism: Life and Word 7:08
- The Heart of the Evangelistic Mandate: Proclaiming the Gospel 8:42
- The Gospel as Divinely Revealed, Objective, Inscripturated Truth 12:40
- The Gospel's Magnificent Indicatives and Magisterial Imperatives 29:31
- The Extent and Scope of the Evangelistic Mandate: To the World 42:50
- Application: Be World Christians, Starting at Home 54:34
- Concluding Exhortation and Prayer 58:57
Key Quotes
“Any attempt to proclaim the Gospel in a context where you as a Christian or the church in its corporate life is not manifesting the truth and power of the Gospel by a radically different pattern of life can only stir up prejudice against the Gospel and cause the enemies of God to blaspheme.”
“Any individual, any church committed to biblical evangelism will be like a bonafide, properly minted coin. It will have two sides with the proper images and words on both sides.”
“The way to tell whether in fact you are evangelizing is not to ask whether conversions are known to have resulted from your witness. It is to ask whether you are faithfully making the message known.”
“You see, the gospel is not a nose of wax to be bent any way, pulled out into any shape that men want to do it and still call it the gospel.”
“The gospel is a message containing magnificent indicatives. Statements of what is that when contemplated expand the mind, swallow up the whole of the human spirit in wonder and in awe.”
“That almighty God has let his wrath be vented upon his son. That he might justly and righteously pardon. That's good news. That's enough to make old men feel young again when they preach it.”
“But that God now comes to you with all the weight and authority of his inherent Godness and he commands you stack arms stop living for yourself stop living by your own standards stop living to please your friends and your peers stop it I didn't make you to make a God of my fellow creatures I made you that I should be your God that's what repentance is you get out of the God business stop living for your own ends by your own standards stop it get out of the God business that's repentance”
“The biblical warrant is clear dear brothers and sisters it is clear that biblical Christians are world Christians”
Applications
Parents & families
- Seek to discern how to fit into the world-encompassing mission, and for young men and women to consider spending their lives taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.
All listeners
- Have a grasp on what constitutes the gospel, as all believers are to be engaged in evangelism.
- Evangelize by demonstrating the truth and power of the gospel through a radically different pattern of life.
- Communicate and proclaim to the world the truth of the gospel, which is divinely revealed, objective, and inscripturated, containing magnificent indicatives and magisterial imperatives.
- Fulfill the sacred duty and solemn privilege to be mouthpieces of Christ in evangelizing sinners through all the world, starting in your own homes.
- Be an evangelist to your own children, communicating the gospel to them.
- Evangelize in your neighborhoods, workplaces, doctor's offices, schools, and among relatives.
- Do not exempt yourselves from the task of evangelizing sinners, even to the unreached parts of the world.
- Confess sinful silence and shoddy living, and ask God to baptize you afresh with burning hearts, loosened tongues, and ready hands to proclaim the gospel.
- Obey the gospel imperatives: stack arms, get out of the God business, and throw yourselves upon God's mercy in Jesus.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 98 paragraphs, roughly 61 minutes.
Introduction: The Church's Purpose and Evangelistic Mandate
The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, December 17, 2000, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.
In Psalm 133, a portion of God's Word familiar to many of us, the psalmist celebrates the spiritual fragrance and the spiritual refreshing that comes from brethren dwelling together in unity. And such unity among any group of God's people is the product of many things, not the least of which is their commitment to live, to worship, and to labor together, guided by common standards of belief and of practice. Now, that's not just a sentence to fill up an introduction. When you find a people of God dwelling together in unity, it's the result and the fruit of many things, but not the least of those is their commitment to live, to worship, and to labor together with common standards of belief and of practice. And it's in the light of that foundational principle that we as a congregation in adopting our revised Constitution in 1995 have underscored that it is the duty, the duty of the elders to see to it that once, at least once every five years,
the central biblical truths of our confession of faith, that's our common standard of belief, and our Constitution, our commonly accepted standard of behavior, that at least 15 Lord's Days be given to a concurrent teaching and preaching of the biblical truths from those standards of belief and of practice. Practice. And in compliance with that directive, we are now in our Lord's Day morning service, and again tonight, considering a series that I've entitled Living Together in the Father's House. And we have addressed from our Constitution and turning from that to the Scriptures the foundational question, what is the purpose of this church? And the answer of our Constitution is that the purpose of this church is to glorify the God of the Scriptures. And we examine several pivotal texts of Scripture which clearly teach that any church that purports to be a church of Christ committed to the will of Christ will have as its supreme and all-embracing purpose that of bringing glory to the God of the Scriptures. Then we began to take up the question and are presently wrestling with the biblical answer, how?
By what means? In what activities is a church to pursue that supreme and all-embracing purpose, namely, to glorify God? Well, our Constitution answers that question with six participles describing the biblical activities. I've chosen to organize them in terms of a circle and arrows.
The large circle represents the church. There is an arrow from the center of that circle piercing the church. There is an arrow from the center of that circle piercing the church. The top part of the circle going upward, that represents the worshiping church.
That we glorify the God of the Scriptures in the language of our Constitution by promoting His worship. And again, we looked at several pivotal Scriptures to substantiate the fact that this is indeed the function of the church. And then we looked at the arrows pointing inward and we saw from the Scripture with the words of our Constitution as a kind of helpful expression of the scriptural truths that we are to be committed in our life together to mutual edification. Edification by means of competent pastoral ministry.
Edification by means of one another ministry. Ephesians 4 being the most crucial passage in demonstrating that reality. But we must also, with the inward arrows, not only be committed to edifying one another, but to responding to one another in terms of practical manifestations of Christian love and benevolence. Now then, we began to take up last week the arrows that go from the center of the circle outward in all directions but upward.
They go out east and west, left and right, and every point on the compass in between. And that is the task and the duty of evangelizing, of evangelizing sinners. That's the way it's stated in our Constitution. And as we moved into that area last Lord's Day morning, I stated that we are to evangelize sinners fundamentally in two ways.
Two inseparable ways. But two ways. And the first is that we are to evangelize sinners by manifesting to them the truth and power of the Gospel by a consistent, radically, different manner of life. Any attempt to proclaim the Gospel in a context where you as a Christian or the church in its corporate life is not manifesting the truth and power of the Gospel by a radically different pattern of life can only stir up prejudice against the Gospel and cause the enemies of God to blaspheme.
We are in the language of Titus to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. Our lives are to dress up the Gospel and make it beautiful and attractive by consistent, radically different patterns of life. But then the second way we evangelize, we must not only manifest to sinners the truth and power of the Gospel by life, but we must proclaim to the world, that we must proclaim to the world, that we must proclaim to the world, that we must proclaim to the world, the truth of the Gospel by every biblically sanctioned means of verbal communication. Now I know some of you get weary with my long statements, but dear people, when you're dealing with biblical truth and trying to collate Scripture into your own words, every word is crucial if one is to be accurate. And I don't know how to reduce this. As surely as we saw from the Scriptures, we evangelize by manifesting to the world the truth and power of the Gospel. The Scriptures teach with equal clarity we must proclaim to the world the truth of the Gospel, how?
The Two Sides of Biblical Evangelism: Life and Word
By every biblically sanctioned means of verbal communication. Whether the word communication is the sign language we hopefully will see tonight, whether it is the printed page, whether it is your radio picking up radio waves, or the television picking up television waves, verbal communication, that is the Gospel broken down into vocables that either impinge upon the ear or the eye and convey to us the saving mercy of God in Jesus Christ. Now, I'm done with my review. We come to take up this morning this whole matter of the second side of the coin. Any individual, any church committed to biblical evangelism will be like a bonafide, properly minted coin. It will have two sides with the proper images and words on both sides. Wherever there is healthy, spirit-wrought, Bible-based evangelistic passion, in an individual or in a church, there will be these two things found together, the two sides of the coin, the two elements of breathing.
We inhale and we exhale. You don't have to breathe. You do only one, you're dead. And any individual, any church, that attempts to do one without the other to some degree is in the thralldom of death of an effective evangelistic witness and testimony.
The Heart of the Evangelistic Mandate: Proclaiming the Gospel
So our subject for this morning, and again this evening, is going to be this second aspect of how we evangelize sinners. We must proclaim to the world the truth of the Gospel by every biblically sanctioned, means of verbal communication. I hope to unpack that sentence and bring to bear a number of scriptures under three headings. First of all, the heart of the evangelistic mandate.
Then secondly, the extent or scope of the evangelistic mandate. I hope to cover those two this morning. And then this evening, the means of fulfilling the evangelistic mandate. First of all then, and for the bulk of our time remaining, this morning, we take up the heart of the evangelistic mandate of the church.
I've stated it this way. We must proclaim the truth of the Gospel. That's the heart of the evangelistic mandate. It is to be a proclamation of the Gospel.
And then you ask, well, what is the Gospel? Well, very simply stated, the heart of the evangelistic mandate, is the duty and privilege of announcing to the world the good news of God's saving mercy to sinners in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the Gospel. And it is that message, that good news, that glorious news of God's saving mercy in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we are to proclaim to the world.
In a book that has now become a classic, one of the earlier works of Dr. J. I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, listen to Dr. Packer's very helpful, accurate, simple definition of evangelism. What is evangelism? Dr. Packer answers, how then should evangelism be defined?
The New Testament answer is very simple. According to the New Testament, evangelism is just preaching the Gospel, the evangel. It is the work of communication in which Christians make themselves mouthpieces for God's message of mercy to sinners. Anyone who faithfully delivers that message under whatever circumstances, in a large meeting, in a small meeting, from a pulpit, or in a private conversation, is evangelizing.
Since the divine message finds its climax in a plea from the Creator to a rebel world to turn and put faith in Christ, the delivering of that message involves the summoning of one's hearers to conversion. The way to tell whether in fact you are evangelizing is not to ask whether conversions are known to have resulted from your witness. It is to ask whether you are faithfully making the message known. So wherever, in whatever circumstances, large or small, one to one, by means of a booklet, by means of a tract, by means of a tape, by means of personal testimony, whatever it is, in whatever situation, there is a communication of the message. The good news of God's saving mercy in Christ, there you have evangelism. The heart of the evangelistic, the mandate of the church, is to communicate, to proclaim the good news to sinners. Now if that's so, do you see why every believer ought to have a grasp on what constitutes the gospel?
The Gospel as Divinely Revealed, Objective, Inscripturated Truth
If all of us are to be engaged in this task of evangelism, consistent with our present stage of growth, our situation in life, the measure of our gifts, and a host of other variables, if we are all responsible, and all have the privilege, in one way or another, to one degree or another, to proclaim the evangel, we better know what it is. And I want to suggest, as I've tried to take a fresh approach to this in my own mind, with the scriptures, I want to lay before you these two statements regarding the question, well, what is the message? If evangelism is proclaiming and conveying the message, how will I know if I am conveying the message, the gospel? I suggest these two categories, and then we'll look at a number of scriptures under both of them. The gospel is, first of all, a message comprised of divinely revealed, objective, inscripturated truth. Pastor Martin, here you go again.
Fifty-cent words. Yes, but here I go again explaining every one of them. And I have a responsibility to seek to labor for your maturation in Christ, and if you get scared away with any word beyond one syllable, you'll remain a babe for the rest of your life. There's more to communicating than it's like, wow, man, you know.
So hang in there with me. I'll explain them, and I hope after explaining them and seeing the truth embedded in the scriptures, you'll appreciate the mouthful. It is a message comprised of divinely revealed, objective, inscripturated truth. You see, foundational to this assertion is the phrase, it is a message comprised of truth.
Now, there are many in our day who, the minute they hear the word truth, you know what they do? They echo cynical Pilate, who in the presence of Jesus said, what is truth? And there are many in our day, perhaps some of you sitting here. There are others who, when they hear the word truth, they respond not so much with a cynical sneer, but a troubled wrinkle upon their brow.
They have been so shaken from the moorings of the concept that there is truth, there is right and wrong, that everything's relative, that they ask in a despairing tone, what is truth? Where can it be found? But you see, the gospel is truth. It is a message comprised of truth.
And what is truth? Truth is defined in our very common dictionaries as that which accords with reality. The truth is what really is. It's the opposite of falsehood, of fancy, of fable, the effusions of a fevered brave.
The truth is that I stand before you as a man, 5 foot 11 in my stocking feet, 6 feet in my shoes, 197 pounds, 66 years old. That's the truth. That's what it is. Now, if I stand before you, and I think, that I'm 20 years old, and that I have the stature of an interior lineman in the NFL, that I'm 6 foot 5, 287 pounds, and that my name...
I may think that all I want, but those are just the effusions of a fevered brave. Or maybe the fantasies of a would-be frustrated jock. It could be a number of things. But if I present myself as anything other than a 5 foot 11 inch, 197 pounds, 66 year old man, I've left truth.
Truth is what is. Whether I want to face it, whether I want to acknowledge it, whether I want to confess it, truth is what is. And it's because the gospel is a message of truth, that we can measure things that say they are the gospel, and see if indeed they really are. Turn with me to Galatians chapter 1.
Galatians chapter 1. Paul could write to the Galatians with these very strong right angled words. Verse 6 of chapter 1. I marvel that you are so quickly removing from him that called you in the grace of Christ unto a different...
Now here's our word, gospel. Unto a different good tidings, which is not another gospel, only there are some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from heaven should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema. Let him be accursed of God.
As we've said before, so say I now again, if any man preaches unto you any gospel other than that which you received, let him be accursed of God. Now what's the assumption in those words? The assumption is that Paul's gospel, the gospel of God, had fixed standards of reality. And that gospel came making certain assertions of truth, along comes a group of people and they say, we've got the gospel.
Paul says, take it in hand, lay it alongside the pattern, the size and the shape of the gospel I preached and that you received. And if it doesn't match, chuck it. The curse of God is upon it. You see, the gospel is not a nose of wax to be bent any way, pulled out into any shape that men want to do it and still call it the gospel.
And the reason we have such passages, these is because the gospel is a message comprised of truth. And truth is what is. It's not altered by the climate. It's not altered by trends in society, by philosophical theories.
Truth is truth. Like Mount Everest, it stands. Before wars and after wars, amidst tumultuous overturnings of whole nations, Mount Everest stands. God's truth stands.
That's why Paul could write to the Colossians, another text. This mindset is so contrary to the climate of our generation that I want to clinch it with at least these two texts. Look at Colossians 1. Here the apostle is telling the Colossians that he gives thanks to God for them.
He prays for them. Now notice what he says. Verse 3. We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have to all, the saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, whereof you heard before, now notice, in the word of the truth of the gospel, which is come unto you, even as it is also in all the world, bearing fruit and increasing as it does in you also, since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in...
You see what he's saying? The gospel is the body, the body of truth. It affirms what is. Now, I've used three adjectives to describe what kind of truth it is.
I've said that the gospel is a message comprised of truth. But what kind of truth? Divinely revealed, objective, inscripturated. Now I could have used the proper adjective, revelatory, but I would have really gotten it from some of you, so I've said hyphenated words, into an adjectival flavor.
It is a message comprised of divinely revealed truth. Now there are some truths that we are left free to discover without any special revelation from God. Let me ask you children, if I put up on the pulpit two nice, big, fat, juicy oranges here, and I put two more big, fat, juicy oranges here, I ask you, how many oranges will be on this front plane of the pulpit if I put these over here and these over here? You know how many oranges would be right here.
Four? Yeah. Now, do you need to have God reveal that from heaven? Do you need to search your Bible and say, wait a minute, Pastor, let me see if I can find a chapter and verse that tells me how many...
No. You don't need any revelation. That it should be so is part of the revelation of God's orderly world. I know all of that, and you philosophers and theologians, leave me alone.
I'm trying to help people. And don't press me to the wall. I know that behind that it is the fact that God's revealed it. But you don't need special revelation.
There are two oranges from here, two oranges from there. Makes four oranges. That's open to anyone who wants to look at the oranges and treat them honestly. But you see, the gospel is not something that's just out there that anyone could discover if only they put their minds to it.
It is a message comprised of divinely revealed truth. This is why it is called the gospel of God. That's a genitive of both origin and of possession. It is God's gospel.
It is the gospel that comes from God. Notice how that phrase is used first of all in the ministry of our Lord Jesus. Here comes the Son of God, Mark chapter 1. He's been baptized by John.
And he comes into Galilee preaching. Mark 1, 14. Now after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God, saying, The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent ye and believe in the gospel. He came preaching the gospel of God. It is a gospel that comes to us because of God's revelatory activity. It is a divinely revealed gospel.
Hence it is called that again in Romans 1 in verse 2. Paul is writing to the church at Rome, opening his heart to them, telling them of his desire to come to them. And he says, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called an apostle, separated, now notice, unto the gospel of God. It is God's gospel.
He has brought together the realities which it proclaims. He is its author. Similar phrase in 2 Corinthians 11 in verse 7. And how does it come down to us?
How is it that we can now pick up our Bibles and know what that divinely revealed gospel is? Well, we know that because of 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Listen to the words of the apostle.
Verse 11. Who among men knows the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him? Let me ask you. Who can tell you what you're thinking right now?
You say, well, God can, yes. But next to God, who else? You. You're the only one who knows what you're thinking.
Who among men knows the things of the man which is in him? I'm sorry. Who among men knows the things of the man except the spirit of man which is in him? In other words, you alone know what your unspoken thoughts are.
Until you put them in words and say, you know, mummy, I've been thinking about, and now mummy knows what you were thinking. Not because she can get inside your head and read your thoughts. Now, sometimes you may think she can, but she's just doing calculated guessing. From your past patterns, she's taking a guess.
But mummy really doesn't get inside your head and read your thoughts. This text says, no one knows what's inside of us but ourselves. Now look at the text. Even so, the things of God none knows save the spirit of God.
Only the spirit of God, the third person of the Godhead, fully knows the mind of God. And the mind of God, with reference to the gospel, we would never know except, read on, but we receive, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God. Now notice, which things we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the spirit teaches, combining spiritual things with spiritual words. You see what he is saying?
He said we would never know what was locked up in the mind and heart of God if God had not revealed it. But the spirit has revealed it uniquely to the apostles. And they have expressed the mind of God in words which were directed by God himself. So when we come to the words of our Bibles, we have divinely revealed truth.
That's why Jesus in his high priestly prayer could say, Father, sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth. And so the gospel, which we are privileged and responsible to proclaim to the world, is a message comprised of truth. What is?
But it's divinely revealed truth. But then secondly, it's objective truth. It's objective truth. And I'm using this word to identify that which is the opposite of subjective.
The subjective is how I feel about it. The gospel is not what I feel about it. It is divinely revealed objective truth. It is rooted in space-time history.
We read this morning about specific cities, the remains of which still exist on the northern rim of the Sea of Galilee. When you read the gospels and it says Jesus came into such a place, that's not myth. That's not fantasy. That's not the effusions of a fevered man with a fevered brain.
That's an account of what happened. And when we read that Jesus of Nazareth was apprehended, he was beaten, bludgeoned, scourged, spat upon, hung on a cross, laid in a borrowed tomb, and on the third day came out of that tomb and was seen. These are not religious myths with some kind of subjective psychological impact that they hopefully will make upon us. No, the gospel is comprised of divinely revealed objective truth.
If you and I were there the day Jesus died and had walked close enough to his cross, we could have put out our hand and felt the blood and seen it stain our fingers. It's objective truth. And now it is, as we've already hinted, inscripturated truth. What does that mean?
That means the truth of the gospel is embodied in holy scripture. It is truth which has been committed to the Spirit-inspired writings of the Old and the New Testaments. 2 Timothy 3.16 All scripture is God-breathed and is also profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
That's why Paul could write to the Romans and speak of the gospel of God, Romans 1 and verse 2. And what is that gospel? He says it is the gospel of God that was promised the four through his prophets. Where? In the holy scriptures. It is an inscripturated truth. The gospel that is God's gospel is one that is consistent with the Old Testament scriptures. Luke 24, 45 and following. Then Jesus opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. And he shows them from the Old Testament scriptures how he had to suffer, be raised from the dead the third day, and that repentance unto remission of sin should be preached in his name among all the nations. So, when we talk about gospel, folks, let's be clear. We are talking about a message comprised of divinely revealed objective inscripturated truth.
The Gospel's Magnificent Indicatives and Magisterial Imperatives
So at the heart of the evangelistic mandate is the responsibility of proclaiming the gospel that message comprised of this truth. But the second thing I want to say in answer to the question what is the gospel not only is it a message of divinely revealed objective inscripturated truth but it is a message containing
magnificent indicatives and magisterial imperatives. It is a message containing magnificent indicatives and magisterial imperatives. Now, what do I mean by magnificent indicatives? Well, I hope by now you all know what an indicative statement is. It's a statement of fact. It's an assertion of what is real. Magnificent points to the lofty, to the grand, the sublime, the glorious. Kids, what you now so tritely call awesome, but what is truly awesome, causes awe to the human spirit.
The gospel is a message containing magnificent indicatives. Statements of what is that when contemplated expand the mind, swallow up the whole of the human spirit in wonder and in awe. It is a message of magnificent indicatives. And we must never forget that though the gospel will only make sense against the backdrop of the reality of human sin with its guilt, its bondage, its depravity, and its hell deservingness.
It's only against that backdrop that the gospel is good news. If you sit here this morning and you have no consciousness of who and what you are as a sinner, guilty, bound, depraved, and hell deserving, the gospel will have little meaning to you. And while we acknowledge that the backdrop of the gospel is the reality of human guilt, bondage, depravity, and hell deservingness, the gospel itself in its very etymology is good news. To do what is meant by the Greek verb, ouangelizo or ouangelizomai, it means to herald good tidings.
It is to proclaim magnificent indicatives. And what are they? Well, don't trust me. Let the apostle tell you, 1 Corinthians 15.
What are the magnificent indicatives? Here they are. Verse 1 of 1 Corinthians 15. Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you received, wherein also you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached unto you, except you believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received. If you will just somehow, some way or another, believe that Jesus is for you, everything will be all right. That's what's called gospel in our day. That's one of my objections to the so-called contemporary music scene.
Not all of it, but much of it. It's nothing but mush in terms of its verbal content. The gospel is not Jesus came by and I fell in love with him. That somehow Jesus touched me.
No, no. Here's the gospel. Look at it. See it with your own eyeballs in the scripture. This is the gospel, he says.
Which I preached, by which you're saved, which if you continue to live and die in, you will be eternally saved. Here it is. Christ died for our sins. That's an indicative. And it's a magnificent indicative. The one who came all the way from the Father's unbend glory. He died a real death. But he died for our sins.
A substitutionary death. He died but just for the Jesus. Those are all indicatives. Paul says, that's my gospel. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. It's an inscripturated indicative gospel. That he was buried. It was a real death. He didn't swoon. You don't bury people who have just passed out. And that he has been raised on the third day according to the scriptures. And that he appeared. And that he appeared. And that he appeared. This is the stuff of real history. That get you excited? I hope it gets you excited. In an existential age where all meaning is locked up in what you feel and in what you experience to announce this gospel. Magnificent indicatives. The Lord of glory came among us. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That's
indicative. Christ died Christ was buried. Christ was raised. True gospel proclamation in any setting to anyone at any time must declare salvation from sin and its consequences procured for sinners in the person and work of Jesus Christ the Lord.
And don't let anyone shortchange you. When somebody comes shuffling up on a platform trying to prove he's cool and talks in contemporary jargon and somehow Jesus gets mixed in with all of that. Don't call that gospel. That's cheap mush. The gospel is this. Christ died first. If you begin to have any sense of what your sin is, that will be the best news your ears have ever heard. That almighty God has let his wrath be vented upon his son.
That he might justly and righteously pardon. That's good news. That's enough to make old men feel young again when they preach it. That's the gospel. Magnificent indicatives. But then it contains magisterial imperatives. What's an imperative? That's a command.
When dad says, son take out the garbage. You better regard that as an imperative because that's what it is. If you scratch your head and say well, you know I've been thinking dad that maybe someday I'll... No, no, no. He says take out the garbage. Feet. Time to move. That's an imperative.
It's a command. And an authoritative command is a magisterial command. It's weighty. And that's why I've used the term magisterial. The gospel that contains these magnificent indicatives also contains these magisterial imperatives. Gospel imperatives that have behind them, underneath them and around them all the weight of the throne of the infinite God of the universe of his co-equal son and the spirit who is one with the father and the son in shared life of the triune Godhead. So that when preachers say here are the indicatives. Christ died. Christ was buried.
Christ was raised. And the sinner says so what do I do? Now come the magisterial imperatives and they are two. Repent and believe. Look at Mark 1 again. Jesus himself the king of grace comes. And in him the kingdom comes. Men are to face the fall. But the kingdom draws near and the king of grace and what are they to do? Now verse 14 of Mark 1 after John was delivered up Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God and saying the time is fulfilled the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe in the gospel two present imperative verbs in the Greek start repenting now and go on repenting start believing now and go on believing and they do not come as divine suggestions they come as magisterial imperatives Acts 17 Paul is standing amidst a group of
sophisticated philosophers who like to talk philosophy talk and in the midst he comes as a proclaimer proclaiming the God whom they do not know and at the conclusion of his sermon he says in verse 30 the times of ignorance therefore God overlooked but now he commands that men should everywhere repent God almighty commands sinners in the gospel to repent he commands them to believe 1 John 3 23 this is his commandment not merely his suggestion his entreaty his invitation but his commandment this is his commandment that we should believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ now do you see why I say the gospel contains not only magnificent indicatives but magisterial imperatives this is why Luke in accounting giving the account of the success of the gospel could use the language of Acts 6 and verse 7 in the midst of the proliferation of gospel light and truth in Jerusalem the word of God increased and the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly and a great company of the priests
were obedient to the faith that's a phrase you find several times in the New Testament how can you talk about being obedient to the faith because the faith of the gospel not only comes with indicatives that are to be embraced as true but with imperatives that are to be obeyed and that's why we will never huckster Jesus in this place will we entreat yes do we at times entreat with tears yes do we do what Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 5 we beseech you we beg you be reconciled to God yes but we'll never pander to your love of sin and your love of self until you please do Jesus a favor by tipping your hat to him in some way or another snatching at the benefits of his bloodletting and his gory death so you can go on your way living for yourself into this world but when you die split heaven open no my friend we'll never cheapen the gospel the God who in mercy could have sent us all to hell sent his son to die for sinners and in those marvelous indicatives of the gospel he tells us what he has done for sinners in Christ but that God now comes to you with all the weight and authority of his inherent Godness and he commands you stack arms stop living for yourself
stop living by your own standards stop living to please your friends and your peers stop it I didn't make you to make a God of my fellow creatures I made you that I should be your God that's what repentance is you get out of the God business stop living for your own ends by your own standards stop it get out of the God business that's repentance believe that is throw the whole weight of your being upon Jesus Christ as he's offered in the gospel he stands before you in the gospel saying come to me I'll give you rest he promises in the gospel him that comes I'll in no wise cast out but when he says come that's a magisterial imperative three imperatives in that beautiful invitation in Matthew 11 come unto me take my yoke upon you learn of me all imperatives by the very one who says no man knows the son save the father he's God incarnate telling you come take learn so when you go out of here and you say I won't come I won't take and I won't learn that's not a matter of moral indifference that's high handed rebellion against the God who holds your life in his hand
The Extent and Scope of the Evangelistic Mandate: To the World
so when we affirm that the church has a divine mandate to evangelize sinners then we ask the question how is this to be done if we're thinking biblically we will answer that we must evangelize by demonstrating to the world the truth and the power of the gospel by a radically different pattern of life and secondly we must communicate we must proclaim to the world the truth of the gospel that truth which is divinely revealed objected and inscripturated the message that contains magnificent indicatives and magisterial imperatives now then when we ask the question where are we charged to do this to what extent are we to be concerned that it be done then much more briefly my second heading this morning I am going to be able to cover it having looked at the matter of the heart of the evangelistic mandate it's proclaiming the gospel what the gospel is now then secondly the extent or scope of the evangelistic mandate our constitution states that we are committed to the proclamation of God's perfect law and his
glorious gospel throughout the world or to be more precise our constitution says through all the world we are committed to the proclamation of God's perfect law and glorious gospel through all the world hence the proposition which I am explaining and defending from the scriptures I stated this way we must proclaim to the world the truth of the gospel we must proclaim to the world now what biblical warrant do we have for so grandiose so all encompassing a statement well let's look at several key passages you have already anticipated perhaps the first one Matthew chapter 28 our Lord Jesus has done the things that needed to be done that the gospel might be a proclamation of these magnificent imperatives he has died he has risen from the dead he has validated his risen life forty days appearing periodically to his disciples now we read in verse 16 of Matthew 28 but the eleven disciples went into Galilee into the mountain where Jesus had appointed them and when they saw him they worshipped him but some doubted and Jesus came to them and spoke unto them saying all authority has been given unto me in
heaven and on earth go ye therefore or perhaps better rendered going therefore the participle then the narrative going therefore make disciples of all the nations now stop for a minute put yourself back in that setting here you've been reared all your life to believe you were part of the chosen nation that God had separated you from the other nations had entered into special covenantal relationship with you he had given you a covenant sign he had given you covenant rituals which to regulate your worship he had given covenant stipulations that extended right down to the details of what kind of cloth you could make your garments out what kind of fish you could and could not eat what kinds of animals you could and could not eat you all your life had been steeped in the knowledge we are part of the Hebrew nation that nation shut off from the Goyim the heathen the nations of the world and if our Lord was here speaking in Aramaic he would have used the word Goyim this word make disciples of all the nations ta ethne would be the parallel of the Goyim you've regarded the nations as unclean gentile dogs to be a true loyal Israelite
you live separated from the nations now Jesus says make disciples of all the nations my gospel has broken down this middle wall of partition God now looks upon men for who and what they are in Adam and what they can become in Christ and he says to these Jewish eleven apostles going therefore make disciples of all the nations baptizing them teaching them and then notice the final promise lo I am with you always even to the consummation of the age now this command in its immediate context was given to the eleven verse sixteen that's clear but when Jesus concludes it with the promise I am with you always even to the consummation of the age it is clear that our Lord is assuming that this commission which had its immediate and direct application to the eleven would merge into the standing responsibility and privilege of the church long after the original apostles were dead and to the end of the age he would be with his people as they too go and make disciples of all the nations that's part of the job description
of every church that claims to be a company of disciples prepared to do all things whatsoever Christ has commanded that we are to have a heart and a concern and to seek to discern how we fit in to this world encompassing mission laid upon us by the Lord Jesus turn back to Matthew 24 in this chapter the Lord is answering the question of his disciples when would the temple be destroyed when would Jerusalem be judged what would be the sign of his coming the end of the age and in this Olivet discourse these various events are interwoven and they overlap and difficult at times to extricate what applies to 70 AD when the Roman armies came and leveled Jerusalem and literally took down every block in the temple one from another but here there is a clear reference to the end the consummation of all things in verse 14 and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations and then shall the end
come when will Christ return anyone sets day and hour the Lord said don't listen to him but here is one of the clear statements of our Lord Jesus we can say the Lord will come when this gospel of the kingdom has been preached now notice the two words of universal scope in the whole world in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony unto all all the all of the gentile nations and therefore if our hearts yearn for the return of our Lord Jesus we must be concerned that this gospel be preached to all the inhabited earth for a testimony unto all the nations and our Lord Jesus in Luke chapter 24 remember what I'm trying to demonstrate that when I've stated that evangelizing is proclaiming the truth of the gospel to the world that this is what scripture warrants Luke chapter 24 verse 45 then opened he that is Jesus their mind the mind of his disciples they should understand the scriptures and said unto them thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and rise again and the dead the third day and that repentance
unto remission of sins now notice should be preached in his name unto all the nations beginning from Jerusalem you are witnesses of these things we come to Acts 1 in verse 8 we have a similar statement of the Lord you should receive power the Holy Spirit coming upon you and you should be witnesses unto me both not first then it's not sequential witness but simultaneous witness both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost part of the earth and when the Jerusalem church was apparently slow to obey that directive you remember what the Lord did turn to Acts chapter 8 a great movement of the spirit of God but the gospel is not yet penetrated Samaria it has not yet reached out to what would then be the uttermost part of the earth and we read in Acts 8 in verse 1 and Saul was consenting unto his death Stephen's death and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church which was in Jerusalem and they were all scattered abroad through the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles
you see the familiar ring of the language you should be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria now the Lord says I meant what I said and I'm going to make sure that what I said comes to pass so I'm going to allow this self righteous zealous brilliant young Pharisee named Saul of Tarsus to so turn against the church that I will scatter my people and they are scattered where they are scattered in the regions of Judea and Samaria and by the time we come to Acts 11 which God willing we'll see in our study next week our responsibility to plant and to strengthen churches the uttermost part of the earth was out there in Antioch where some of these scattered believers went and preached and God established a congregation and Barnabas comes up from Jerusalem to strengthen that church as the launching pad to the rest of the world under the missionary labors of the Apostle Paul the biblical warrant is clear dear brothers and sisters it is clear that biblical Christians are world Christians now what's this say to us I conclude this morning with one word of application to you God's people and a word to me as one of the pastors and to my fellow pastors
Application: Be World Christians, Starting at Home
in this place you as God's people and spiritually and as a body of God's people we have a sacred duty and a solemn privilege to be mouthpieces of Christ in seeking to evangelize sinners through all the world we start in our own homes I bore testimony this morning that my father and mother evangelized me continually they reasoned backward from the lies they discovered to my rotten heart that gave birth to the lies they urged me to seek God for a new heart and when I would speak of my consciousness of sin they pointed me to the one who died for sinners they evangelized the world that came to them by way of my mother's womb if you're not doing that any other so called evangelistic vision and passion is sham God's given you your mission field it sits at your table it laughs in your home are you being an evangelist? are you fulfilling your solemn responsibility and your great privilege to communicate this gospel to your own children in our neighborhoods as we seek to be neighborly and manifest before our neighbors
our radically different lifestyle in the workplace in the doctor's office in the school among your relatives yes even to the unreached parts of the world we have no right to exempt ourselves from the task of evangelizing sinners it's laid upon every one of us and the word of exhortation to my own heart and to my fellow pastors is while we are thankful for the work already being done sending men to the ends of the earth sending out the gospel in this metropolitan area with our radio broadcast hopefully soon we're going to have a shortwave broadcast that will reach many parts of the world the books and tapes the website the sermons online men and women going to nursing homes and prisons we bless God if anybody says our Trinity Church has no evangelism that's a lie that's a lie that's a slanderous untruth I bless God I bless the heart of desire to fill the mandate but I'm persuaded there's much more that we need to do I'm persuaded we don't have the knowledge available to us
to be more world Christians not worldly Christians but world Christians if God spares me I don't want to coast and maintain the status quo I long to live in labor and see the time when the young men and women of this church feel that the noblest way they could spend their lives is to join the Steve and Carol Hoffmeyers and go to a strange land with a strange language and bury their life in seeking to preach the gospel I long to see that one of my arguments when I plead with God to let me live a few more years I said oh God if it please you let me live to see not just the Khans in Pakistan and the Hoffmeyers in the Philippines and the interaction we have by mail and sympathy with the Hamiltons and with other gospel endeavors that when we'd have to have a cycle of prayer for our own young men and women who've gone out from this place to take the gospel to the ends of the earth thank God for Pastor Brevard who's gone into the bowels of Newark and the church has plowed it and we bless God for that but oh dear people surely there's much more we are beggars and lepers outcasts, impoverished who have come upon the wealth
Concluding Exhortation and Prayer
of riches in Jesus Christ and brethren we do not well to keep silent may God baptize us afresh with burning hearts and loosened tongues and ready hands to give that tape, that tract, that book in every way seeking to proclaim this marvelous message of God's saving mercy Lord Jesus, let's pray Our Father, how we thank you for your word thank you that it is a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway and how we pray that the things we have considered this morning would be burnt into our hearts by the Holy Spirit we would confess together our sinful silence that we have kept silent when we ought to have spoken we confess the sin of shoddy living that in some cases we have committed for we knew that to open our mouths where people have seen a shoddy life would bring reproach to you Lord, forgive us cleanse and purge us and we ask that as a congregation you would take us all deeper into your own heart that beats for a world we ask you, Lord, to have mercy upon those who have never obeyed those gospel imperatives that this day
you would track them down till they stack arms get out of the God business throw themselves upon your mercy in Jesus O Lord, bless to the salvation of sinners your word hear then our prayers and may your blessing rest upon us and continue with us throughout this day we ask in Jesus' name Amen
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
This passage, the Great Commission, is central to establishing the universal scope and enduring nature of the evangelistic mandate.
This passage is expounded as the definitive biblical statement of the core 'magnificent indicatives' of the Gospel message.
Jesus's initial preaching of the 'gospel of God' is used to define the Gospel's origin and its inclusion of the 'magisterial imperatives' of repentance and belief.
Texts Expounded
Also Referenced
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