Your ShelfYour Projects

The Great Commission

8%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 2, 1909

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 35.

Read the full edition

The Great Commission

By I. H. Evans

One of the last charges Christ gave his disciples before his ascension was, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” To whom does this great commission apply? It has been accepted for ages that this charge to preach the gospel to every creature was intended for the church of Jesus Christ. It does not apply simply to the ministry, but the responsibility of giving the gospel to the world lies with the church militant.
In demonstration of this responsibility, when the day of Pentecost had fully come, the Holy Ghost, which descended upon the church, did not rest upon the disciples alone, but upon all those who were gathered together in the name of Christ. In commenting upon this outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the apostle said that it was in fulfilment of the prophecy of Joel, when he said: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: and I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke.”
From this prophecy, there would seem to be no distinction between the clergy and the laity. It is clearly specified that the Holy Ghost is to rest upon all flesh; that the sons and daughters shall prophesy; that young men shall see visions, old men shall dream dreams, and “on my servants and on my handmaidens,” saith the Lord, “I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.” This means that the Holy Spirit was to equip the church for evangelistic work. When Christ said to his disciples, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,” it was a great commission given by God to his people to preach the gospel everywhere. If the church says that it can not go, that it has duties that will not permit it to go, and if it be true that only a few of those who have been set apart to the ministry are to go to all the world and preach the gospel, we may well ask, What means the prophecy of the Word and the history of the church?
Why should the young men and the young women be filled with the Holy Ghost if they are not to do service in the world for Christ? As a denomination, we profess to be giving a message to the world that will prepare a people to stand when Christ comes. We understand that this message is to go to every nation and kindred and tongue and people. If this interpretation of the message of Revelation 14 be true, there is a great and mighty work to be done before the close of probation.
The great mass of humanity lies in the great heathen nations of the world. Idolatry, ignorance, and superstition reign almost supreme among this people. If the message must go to all the nations of the world, it must reach many of these benighted souls. But how can the third angel’s message go to these heathen lands unless some of God’s children are willing to take it? If the hardships of the way, the poverty and ignorance of the people for whom we should work, are a barrier against our going, we inquire, Who will “go” to do our work?
When Christ would have his disciples preach the gospel, he said to them, “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” God has never sent men to work in his vineyard without first giving them the strength to work. When God commands the missionary to go into the field, it is God’s part to fill that messenger with the Holy Spirit, that he may accomplish the work to which he has been sent. We can not conceive that God would send any one to do a specific work for him without first giving both the wisdom and the strength for the accomplishment of his work.
When God called Moses from the sheepfold of Jethro, his father-in-law, to be his messenger to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, Moses said unto God, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.”
When men undertake to do God’s work in their own strength, they generally fail. Israel surrounded the city of Ai contrary to God’s command, and in their zeal determined to overthrow the city, but they were powerless to accomplish this task. When the men of Ai came out against them, Israel fell by the sword and were slain. But when in obedience to Jehovah’s command, Israel surrounded the city of Jericho, the walls of that city fell at the very shout of his people.
God supplies the wisdom and the strength for those whom he has called to his work, that they may receive from him grace and help in every time of need. Surely, with a message to go to all the world in this generation, there must of necessity be some one whom God has prepared for the fields already whitened for the harvest. Those whom God has called will have his blessing in their work, if they go in the name of Jehovah to do his bidding.
God sent the Macedonian cry from all the great nations of the world to this people during our last session of the General Conference. There was scarcely a heathen nation in the world that did not send in most earnest petitions for trained workers, for new recruits, and for financial help to establish schools and printing plants, and to supply the necessary facilities for the advancement of the third angel’s message. Surely this is the day of God’s preparation; this is the day when God calls his people to quicken their steps in giving this message to all the world, and there should not be one soul from one end of the land to the other that does not respond to the call of God and to the needs of this work. If we expect the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it must be received by our consecrating ourselves for service to God, and the power received be used for the advancement of God’s work in the earth.
It is time for God’s people to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit; but when this prayer is fulfilled, it means that we must give of our lives in whatever capacity God may call us, in the great work of saving souls. The next four years should see hundreds of recruits sent into the foreign fields, and especially into the heathen lands.
I. H. EVANS.