Matt.
28:18. "All authority hath been given unto Me in
heaven and on earth."
Mark
16:15. "Go ye into all the world and preach the
Gospel to the whole creation."
Luke
24:48-49. "Ye are witnesses of these things. And
behold, I send forth the promise of My Father upon you;
but tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with power
from on high."
John
20:22. "He breathed on them, and saith unto them.
Receive ye the Holy Spirit.''
These
commissions, recorded by four evangelists, are not four
different records of the same words, but commissions
given in different places, each with its specific
significance. Together they form the valedictory service
of the apostles in their first moving out into the great
world purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ. The going forth
of men and women is only the outcome of the process of
getting every other interest in life subjugated to
Kingdom interests. After that you naturally go out in
life for that Kingdom. Whether it is a geographical going
forth or staying at home, the world can, and will, be
touched if the process is complete. You are bound to
touch the world, you cannot help it.
These
apostles became conscious at this time that they were in
a thing that was not smaller than the whole world and the
whole creation. So in response to that revelation and
conception we find no question as to how their affairs
were going to get on. They capitulated to the commission
and its accompaniment, and became world factors in the
Kingdom which ranges heaven and earth. When we get our spirit
there, everything else will follow. Whether we go or stay
in the purpose of God, we become part of a thing which
ranges the universe.
Now we are
in that, if we are in the Kingdom of God. The test of our
citizenship in that Kingdom is how far we are counting in
spirit to the bounds of creation. That lifts us out of
our pettiness and takes the humdrum out of life. It ought
to be the big broom which sweeps trivialities from our
door.
The Lord
Jesus Christ is moving today with a world purpose perhaps
more intense than ever before. This is necessarily so if,
as we have reason to believe, the end of the age is upon
us and the dispensation is nearing its close. If we are
near the end, of necessity there must be a mighty
intensification of the age purpose of God. There must
come to God's people a new world consciousness. The Body
of Christ is a world-Body, a spiritual Body, composed of
many members, of which He is the Head. It is by that
Body, and that Body alone, that the Head is to triumph in
the world and take the Kingdoms unto Himself and make of
them one Kingdom. The members being in all the world we
must have a world relationship (as to dimensions), and
not only that, but a world responsibility.
What is
the intensive purpose of the Spirit of God today? To
bring that world Body into a conscious and intelligent
apprehension of its union with a victorious and
triumphant Christ, and in the consciousness of that union
to take the Kingdom from the usurper for its Lord and
Creator. That is a statement of the doctrinal facts. It
is going to be thrust on our attention more and more.
Going
about, one finds God's people everywhere suffering an
intense oppression, deprived of that tremendous kick of
power and authority which we have a right to believe is
the right of those who are in union with their victorious
Lord. There is a disparity. We believe we have a Christ
Who met all the hosts of hell, the full force of that
entire hierarchy, entered a life and death combat with
it, and then threw its monarch, the devil, from his very
throne and rose a victor over the last thing that monarch
could do, triumphantly ascended to the throne of the
Majesty on high, and there reigns. We believe it. We
accept it. But here is the Church, baffled, defeated,
agonizing in despair at her barrenness, unable to cope
with situations, trying every means that ingenuity can
suggest, - earnest, honest, sincere believers against
mighty odds, unable to deal with them. This
disparagement, is a contradiction. It ought not to be. If
the Church (not a human organization, but that mystic
Body of believers who are born from above, all members of
a spiritual order, made so by being baptized into one
Body in Jesus Christ) claims a citizenship of the Kingdom
of God, our responsibility is to see that that throne is
fitly known among the people of God.
What was
the first of that series of commissions which the Master
gave to His disciples? "All authority hath been
given unto Me in heaven and on earth, go ye therefore
-." All jurisdiction involves power to choose,
power to insist upon obedience, power of government,
power to utter the final word. It is that power that is
needed in the Church, and such as know the truth have a
world responsibility to make it known. Among Christians
the defeated foe is having things all his own way. This
is not in keeping with a victorious Lord. What about you?
What about me? Many Christians are being continually
flung back from the field by repeated disaster there.
Those who know victory are few, on the foreign field or
at home. But every time the message of Christ's victory
over Satan is spoken, it is as if a live wire were
touched and the thing was done. That is the message for
the Church today. We are heading rapidly up to Rev.
12:11, "- but they overcame him -."
It is
important to remember that this commission was given to a
type of people who understood His Calvary, had been
baptized into His death, had gone down into despair over
their own lives. God only knows the black ignominy and
remorse that those men went through after His death and
resurrection, realizing that they all forsook Him and
fled while the greatest thing in the universe was taking
place. Then the marvel, - they knew what it was to be
baptized by His Spirit into His death, resurrection and
ascension. "Jesus Christ is Lord." That
is the Gospel. These apostles were in league with that
transcendent throne, and it was to function through them.
They went forth with one affirmation, "Jesus Christ
is Lord." Here in the New Testament are four books
describing the life of Christ, one book concerning the
evangelistic message, and twenty-one epistles describing
the results in the Christians who believed the message.
The word went like a flame for one reason only, that
Jesus Christ had made world conquest and they were in it.
If you
know that truth it is for you to enter experimentally
into it, and then know you have something to meet the
need of the Body of Christ worldwide. When you do that
you are going to meet the need of the Body of Christ in
an apostolic way. Even among those who are true there is
a sense of tremendous resistance, of being up against
forces with which they cannot cope, and which are getting
the upper hand. Every country will feel the impact of the
gospel as never before when the Church realizes the
full-orbed message of Christ's conquest.
We have
got to let go all the local, parochial and personal, and
expand to a twenty-five thousand mile circumference and
beyond that even unto the sphere of spiritual
principalities encircling the earth, and remember we are
touching the endless ages with the present hour. We are
not children of time. We have entered into a life which
never had a beginning and never will have an ending. We
have entered into that boundless plan which covers this
world and enters heaven.
Prayer
....The
only compulsion we would know is, Woe is me if I preach
not the gospel. Lay upon us all the passion of the
Kingdom... We would stand in Thy presence to minister
life to others, to stand against the devil's work, to
hold the curse of God over these works of his, to command
hands off the children of God. We would stand for the
Body of Christ that she be all out of this prison, all
chains fallen off. And we would claim perfect
protection.... May we be fitted into our place in the
world purpose of the Body, and find ourselves in the
wondrous plan of God, for His name's sake.