And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
The risen Christ, on the ground of fulfilled Scripture that He must suffer and rise the third day, charged His witnesses to proclaim turning from sin and pardon through His name to every nation, starting at Jerusalem. The message calls sinners to see sin as breaking God's law and to turn with broken, confessing hearts to faith in Christ, for cleansing comes only through the crucified and risen Saviour's merits and no church officer can forgive sin or sell pardon. Beginning at Jerusalem meant first offer of mercy even to those who rejected and killed Him and to the misled and secret believers there, and it sets the order of first being fitted by the Spirit, then blessing home and neighborhood before going to the farthest places. Those sent were to wait until clothed with power from on high, then preach with Christ's presence and the Spirit so thousands were converted in a day. That commission belongs not to the first disciples alone but to every believer in every age, who must not settle in one place but carry the gospel to all tongues and peoples and neglected fields, giving means and service to hasten Christ's return.
Setting and Scriptural Foundation
The risen Christ spoke these words in an upper room behind a closed door to fearful disciples, proving He was alive by eating before them and choosing to convince them by opening the Scriptures rather than by working a miracle. He remained with them forty days opening the realities of the kingdom of God before ascending to heaven escorted in triumph by the heavenly throng to the city of God. That commission was given only steps from His heavenly throne, as His last words and parting instruction just before His ascension when the disciples did not yet fully comprehend the mission they had given themselves to.
He opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures, showing that everything written about Him in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms had to be fulfilled. Especially it was written and required that the Messiah must suffer, be rejected, be crucified, die and be buried, and rise from the dead on the third day, with every specification of His advent fulfilled. As the disciples came to understand those prophecies as fulfilled realities, their testimony to Christ and God's love carried divine assurance and assurance of the power that would attend their future labors.
On that fulfilled-Scripture foundation He declared as what was written and required that repentance and remission of sins must be preached in His name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. This repeats in different form His charge to go into all the world and preach the gospel, given over and over in different forms so they would grasp its significance after His death, resurrection and ascension. It belongs to His last words to His disciples before He ascended, His parting commission to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in His name.
As witnesses of these things they were to proclaim to all men the events of His life, death and resurrection, the harmony and fulfillment of prophecy with those events, the sacredness of the law of God, the mysteries of the plan of salvation, and His power for the remission of sins. Their message was a gospel of peace and salvation through repentance and the Saviour's power, repentance and remission through the power of Jesus, to be made known to the world by those who had witnessed those events and prophecies and had come to established faith and a clear sense of the nature and extent of their worldwide work. The wider passage gives assurance of a living Saviour as Advocate in the heavenly courts devoted to the work of redeeming the world, promising blessing and imparting all blessings to those who believe with entire consecration. It appoints the Christian church in its union and consecrated powers as His agencies for the spiritual recovery of the moral image of God in man, requiring far superior devotedness and consecration of the soul-temple in worship and service.
His teaching to the lonely disappointed disciples traveling to Emmaus and to those assembled in the upper chamber opened the Scriptures concerning Himself and refreshed and healed them like pure streams from the living fountain of the water of life, binding their hearts with holy, new, sacred hope and joy. The charge to preach repentance and remission carried faithful warning that they would be persecuted and distressed but could find relief in their experience and His words. They were given assurance that as He had overcome the temptations of the Devil and Satan had no more power over Him they could overcome as He had overcome, with endowment with power to do miracles and angelic deliverance so their lives could not be taken until their mission was accomplished, and comfort that He would go to prepare mansions and come again to receive them to be ever with Him and would send the Comforter the Holy Spirit to guide and lead them into all truth before He lifted His hands and blessed them.
Content of Gospel Message
The message to be preached is repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ, offered to the fallen world as pardon and restoration to divine favor for all who turn from sin and believe. Sin is the breaking of God's law, so repentance means turning to God from sin because the law is broken, while faith in Christ is also necessary because the law itself cannot save. Repentance involves a change of mind and heart, humbling the heart and confessing unbelief and sin, with sorrow, broken heart and contrition, and falling upon Christ. Those who remember Christ's words until their meaning is more fully understood, review scene after scene of His wonderful life and meditate on His pure holy character, will sorrow deeply for ever grieving Him by word or act of unbelief, long to show love to Him, find comfort in being forgiven, resolve to make up for unbelief by bravely confessing Him before the world, and count no toil too hard and no sacrifice too great to bear witness in life to His loveliness.
Merely urging sinners to believe in Christ and accept Him without regard to a past life of sin and rebellion leaves out the gospel, for the gospel requires recognition of sin and turning from it through repentance, confession and heartfelt contrition. True preaching is the same message rung out by John the Baptist in the wilderness and by Christ to the people, the old gospel doctrine of sorrow for sin, repentance and confession that ministers must preach today, laboring perseveringly, earnestly and wisely until the sinner sees himself a transgressor of God's law and exercises repentance toward God and faith toward Christ. Such repentance requires a broken heart, contrition of soul, confession of sin, and falling upon the Rock, Christ Jesus. When the sinner is conscious of his helpless condition and feels his need of a Saviour, he may come with hope and faith to Christ, and Christ will accept the soul that comes in true repentance and will not despise a broken and contrite heart.
Forgiveness is obtained only through the merits of the crucified and risen sin-pardoning Saviour, who became man's substitute and surety and accomplished redemption, imputing His righteousness to the repentant sinner, while loving and clinging to sin is incompatible with His grace. The disciples were commissioned to proclaim remission in His name but were given no power themselves to remove guilt or cleanse anyone from sin, not even one stain from the children of Adam; they were to go forth preaching His merits, assuring repentant sinners of mercy in Christ and proclaiming the wrath of an offended God against the impenitent, while Christ Himself will execute the sentence. The commission grants no ecclesiastical right to forgive sin, to sell indulgences so men may sin without incurring God's displeasure, to accept a gift or bribe for cloaking sin and escaping merited censure, or to visit God's wrath upon the offender. Whoever attracts people to himself as one invested with power to forgive sins turns souls away from the heavenly Pardoner to a weak and erring mortal and incurs the wrath of God.
The church may under inspired guidance censure or remove censure and may assure a repentant sinner of Christ's forgiveness, but such action is not priestly absolution or authority to forgive sins, for Jesus alone forgives sin. The terms for receiving or refusing forgiveness are prescribed and published by Christ's chosen ministers, but not according to their own judgment; they are the terms God has set.
The invitation is full and free salvation for all classes of people and all who will, teaching that Christ came to pardon the repentant. All who confess their sins and come to Christ may be freely received, reconciled to God, restored to favor, offered everlasting life, and given assurance of pardon. All who come to the Father through faith in Christ, laying hold of the Saviour by faith and following His example, turning and believing, receive that assurance, made possible because the Saviour suffered the penalty of death, and through His sufferings every soul may be sanctified through belief of the truth. The disciples, as witnesses of His life of self-sacrifice in behalf of the world, were entrusted with this message of mercy to be given first to Israel and then to Jews and Gentiles everywhere, gathering believers into one church, with His presence going with them as they labor in faith and confidence to the farthest part of the habitable globe.
This proclamation of pardon for sin and salvation through repentance is the ministry of the gospel Word, grounded in the merits of His crucifixion and resurrection and in understanding the Scriptures and prophecies concerning Christ, as the apostles traced prophetic history from Adam to Christ crucified while urging repentance. It is carried out through the witness of Christ's followers who call others to repentance in His name, and those who accept forgiveness are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, welcomed into church fellowship, and to show a divine change in their lives. It is not to be displaced by medical missionary work. This message of mercy, calling people to repentance and proclaiming forgiveness of sins in Christ's name, is to be proclaimed again just before Christ's second coming.
Beginning at Jerusalem
Beginning at Jerusalem sets the order of the work: testimony is first to be borne at the home center and then extended outward through Judea and Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth. Those who carry truth must first have their own hearts imbued and transformed by the Spirit, receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit with its sure connection with heaven, illumination, new courage and joy to comprehend the depth and fullness of God's love before they begin. Their labor must then commence at home, with families receiving the benefit of their influence and a well-disciplined home demonstrating the transforming power of the Spirit. From there the circle widens so the whole neighborhood perceives interest for its salvation and receives faithful presentation of truth as important as that for those far away, then to adjoining cities and towns until the message is given to the uttermost earth.
Jerusalem was fitting because it had been the scene of Christ's amazing condescension and sacrifice for the human race. There, clad in the garb of humanity, He had walked and talked with men, though few discerned how near heaven came to earth when He dwelt among them, in the land of Judea of which Jerusalem was the metropolis and His birthplace. There He had suffered, been rejected, condemned and crucified. Rather than abandoning the very place where He had taught and faced rejection for a field expected to be more receptive, the apostles were to cultivate it until the seeds of truth bore fruit.
The first offer of mercy was to be made there even to those who had killed Him and taken part in arranging His death, offering pardon and calling them back from disobedience and apostasy. As eyewitnesses of Jesus and His resurrection they were to explain the prophecies fulfilled in Him, present convincing evidence, and proclaim salvation to the world. The gospel there was also for many who secretly believed Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah and for many who had been deceived and misled by priests and rulers. To them the call to repentance was to be proclaimed with truth made plain that remission of sins could be obtained through Christ alone, giving those misled another opportunity to accept Him.
The timing was most fitting because all Jerusalem was stirred and agitated by the thrilling events and scenes of the past few weeks, so preaching then would make the deepest impression. Beginning there met enemies who tried to extinguish the truth by murdering Him and by spreading false reports about His resurrection, hoping to silence it there. Those falsehoods were to be met by positive testimony from men who had talked with Christ after His resurrection and had seen His ascension, who boldly took up the work where Christ had laid it down instead of giving up faith as His enemies expected. Multitudes from many parts of the world were gathered there at the crucifixion and heard the false reports, and before those same multitudes the disciples with the power of the Holy Spirit resting upon them bore witness that Christ is the Resurrection and the Life. People from many nations heard the testimony in Jerusalem, saw the day of Pentecost, and those who returned home carried the preaching of turning from sin and forgiveness in His name to their homes in many places and beyond.
The apostles were to continue there despite hatred, oppression and jealousy until truth bore fruit, remaining in Jerusalem as their first field of labor until the Spirit directed them to go elsewhere. The commission thus gives priority to home missions and to reaching people in one's own country and community before entering new fields, beginning at home and extending to neighbors. In later application this means beginning at Battle Creek and doing the required work there first before bearing testimony in other places east of the Rocky Mountains. Jerusalem as the earlier starting place and source of gospel light is compared with Wittenberg, where Luther's teaching made the light of truth shine.
Witnesses Empowered by Spirit
Those sent are witnesses of His suffering and resurrection, of His death and burial and rising, of His ascension and of His life of self-sacrifice given for the world. The worldwide preaching of repentance and forgiveness in His name rests on that suffering and rising as the fulfillment of Scripture, and it is entrusted to the disciples as witnesses and extends to His followers who carry it to those who have not heard. As they grasped the prophecies as fulfilled realities, their testimony to Christ and to God's love carried divine assurance. They were appointed to carry this message to every nation beginning at Jerusalem, but only after receiving power from the Father.
They were to tarry in the city of Jerusalem until endued with power from on high by the promise of the Father, and not begin the work at once until thus fitted. That fitting is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, giving connection with heaven, illumination, new courage and joy to comprehend God's love. That anointing was essential to success and would qualify them to go forth in the missionary spirit to labor in cities and towns that know not the truth, opening new fields and lifting the standard in every city and in all parts of the earth. His abiding presence to the end of the world and His omnipotence go with the human workers united with divine power, with the Spirit sent from heaven in rich abundance as the heavenly endowment.
They therefore assembled together at Jerusalem, put away all differences, and continued with one accord in prayer and supplication in expectation of the promised blessing. This unity and prayer was that they might preach in the demonstration of the Spirit and in the power of God. Though they faced great danger as sheep in the midst of wolves, they were of good courage because Christ had risen from the dead and revealed Himself to them.
After receiving the Holy Spirit they preached with power, and thousands were converted in a day. The work was begun at Jerusalem, where three thousand were converted in a day, and many were added to the believers as they proclaimed the risen Saviour. His presence goes with them as they labor in faith and confidence. Their blessing is sanctification unto loving, gentle, kind lives, yet they were not ready to undertake the work until they received the promised power from above.
Worldwide Mission to All
The preaching commanded is to all nations, tongues and peoples, to the farthest part of the habitable globe and the remotest earth, as good news to be carried to other places and far away and then told onward by those who receive it. It is for every nation and for all peoples and places, requiring the work to reach beyond any one locality into neglected communities. The message was to be given first to Israel at Jerusalem, where Christ had suffered and been rejected, and then to Jews and Gentiles everywhere, gathering all who believe into one church. The command included the Gentiles as well as the Jews, though the disciples took years to understand its full scope.
The commission belongs not only to the first apostles but to Christ's followers in every age, to all who believe, to every converted soul and to the many believers now, with its promised power still promised to them. It is warfare against evil and work given to all God's people, not to a few ordained ministers, laid out before every man, woman and child enlisted in the Lord's army, who when He calls are to respond with willing service. Ministers are to lay this obligation on the many rather than waiting for earthly councils to plan it. God's power accompanies those who proclaim it, and faithful work in this commission would warn the whole world and, if fulfilled, Christ would return in power and great glory.
The preaching sows the seed of the living Word in the prepared soil of the heart, continuing Christ's teaching where one plants and another waters but only God gives the increase as His messengers cooperate with Him and obey His laws of cause and effect, a sacred trust committed to men with woe to anyone who retards it. Carrying it out includes sending missionaries to foreign countries, reaching neglected communities and dark diseased places in humble simplicity beyond those who already know the truth to those who have never heard, and bringing Bible truth before many to prepare a people to stand in the day of the Lord. Obeying it means consecrating talents of means and influence to soul-saving and putting means into circulation so that converts in turn convert others, with every member filled with the Spirit for irresistible efficiency to arise and shine and save souls perishing in sin. Withholding the truth through selfishness leaves the worldwide witness undone and fellow beings unwarned in spiritual darkness, while all who have the light of present truth are to share the gospel and Christ's redeeming love. After completing His mission Jesus assures the disciples of His authority and sends them as human agents to carry it forward in His name, proclaiming repentance toward God and faith in Christ, and the Spirit's coming would fully illuminate their understanding with hope the Jewish people would accept Him.
Present Duty and Application
Teachers must first learn the lessons from Christ Himself and then teach others what He commanded, for preaching what He commanded is their special work from which nothing is to divert them. They are to dwell more upon these words, putting aside human suppositions and explanations that confuse minds instead of explaining truth. The command belongs to His last words before ascending to heaven, spoken after He opened understanding to see from the Scriptures that He must suffer and rise the third day and that repentance and remission must therefore be preached in His name.
Those who witness these things must be filled with the missionary spirit and go forth to labor in cities and towns that know not the truth. They are not to colonize in one place, adding building to building at Battle Creek, nor to hold camp meetings over and over in the same place. They are to open new fields and lift the standard of truth in every city and in all parts of the earth, using for that worldwide work the heavenly blessings and money entrusted to them.
Obeying the commission requires advancing the work by consecrating talents of means and influence to the Master's service and placing truth before those who do not know it. Means are to be put into circulation for soul-saving, so that men and women will be converted who in their turn will convert others. The church is to understand the great work to be done, and every member is to become filled with the power of the Holy Spirit for an efficiency that cannot be resisted, to arise and shine and to enter into Christ's joy by doing all possible to save souls perishing in sin. The mission begins at home and extends to neighbors before entering new fields, first reaching the community nearest at hand. That requires solid work in neglected places, carrying the message beyond those who already know the truth to those who have never heard it, and making unworked cities centers of truth.
The risen Christ, on the ground of fulfilled Scripture that He must suffer and rise the third day, charged His witnesses to proclaim turning from sin and pardon through His name to every nation, starting at Jerusalem. The message calls sinners to see sin as breaking God's law and to turn with broken, confessing hearts to faith in Christ, for cleansing comes only through the crucified and risen Saviour's merits and no church officer can forgive sin or sell pardon. Beginning at Jerusalem meant first offer of mercy even to those who rejected and killed Him and to the misled and secret believers there, and it sets the order of first being fitted by the Spirit, then blessing home and neighborhood before going to the farthest places. Those sent were to wait until clothed with power from on high, then preach with Christ's presence and the Spirit so thousands were converted in a day. That commission belongs not to the first disciples alone but to every believer in every age, who must not settle in one place but carry the gospel to all tongues and peoples and neglected fields, giving means and service to hasten Christ's return.
Setting and Scriptural Foundation
The risen Christ spoke these words in an upper room behind a closed door to fearful disciples, proving He was alive by eating before them and choosing to convince them by opening the Scriptures rather than by working a miracle. He remained with them forty days opening the realities of the kingdom of God before ascending to heaven escorted in triumph by the heavenly throng to the city of God. That commission was given only steps from His heavenly throne, as His last words and parting instruction just before His ascension when the disciples did not yet fully comprehend the mission they had given themselves to.
He opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures, showing that everything written about Him in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms had to be fulfilled. Especially it was written and required that the Messiah must suffer, be rejected, be crucified, die and be buried, and rise from the dead on the third day, with every specification of His advent fulfilled. As the disciples came to understand those prophecies as fulfilled realities, their testimony to Christ and God's love carried divine assurance and assurance of the power that would attend their future labors.
On that fulfilled-Scripture foundation He declared as what was written and required that repentance and remission of sins must be preached in His name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. This repeats in different form His charge to go into all the world and preach the gospel, given over and over in different forms so they would grasp its significance after His death, resurrection and ascension. It belongs to His last words to His disciples before He ascended, His parting commission to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in His name.
As witnesses of these things they were to proclaim to all men the events of His life, death and resurrection, the harmony and fulfillment of prophecy with those events, the sacredness of the law of God, the mysteries of the plan of salvation, and His power for the remission of sins. Their message was a gospel of peace and salvation through repentance and the Saviour's power, repentance and remission through the power of Jesus, to be made known to the world by those who had witnessed those events and prophecies and had come to established faith and a clear sense of the nature and extent of their worldwide work. The wider passage gives assurance of a living Saviour as Advocate in the heavenly courts devoted to the work of redeeming the world, promising blessing and imparting all blessings to those who believe with entire consecration. It appoints the Christian church in its union and consecrated powers as His agencies for the spiritual recovery of the moral image of God in man, requiring far superior devotedness and consecration of the soul-temple in worship and service.
His teaching to the lonely disappointed disciples traveling to Emmaus and to those assembled in the upper chamber opened the Scriptures concerning Himself and refreshed and healed them like pure streams from the living fountain of the water of life, binding their hearts with holy, new, sacred hope and joy. The charge to preach repentance and remission carried faithful warning that they would be persecuted and distressed but could find relief in their experience and His words. They were given assurance that as He had overcome the temptations of the Devil and Satan had no more power over Him they could overcome as He had overcome, with endowment with power to do miracles and angelic deliverance so their lives could not be taken until their mission was accomplished, and comfort that He would go to prepare mansions and come again to receive them to be ever with Him and would send the Comforter the Holy Spirit to guide and lead them into all truth before He lifted His hands and blessed them.
Content of Gospel Message
The message to be preached is repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ, offered to the fallen world as pardon and restoration to divine favor for all who turn from sin and believe. Sin is the breaking of God's law, so repentance means turning to God from sin because the law is broken, while faith in Christ is also necessary because the law itself cannot save. Repentance involves a change of mind and heart, humbling the heart and confessing unbelief and sin, with sorrow, broken heart and contrition, and falling upon Christ. Those who remember Christ's words until their meaning is more fully understood, review scene after scene of His wonderful life and meditate on His pure holy character, will sorrow deeply for ever grieving Him by word or act of unbelief, long to show love to Him, find comfort in being forgiven, resolve to make up for unbelief by bravely confessing Him before the world, and count no toil too hard and no sacrifice too great to bear witness in life to His loveliness.
Merely urging sinners to believe in Christ and accept Him without regard to a past life of sin and rebellion leaves out the gospel, for the gospel requires recognition of sin and turning from it through repentance, confession and heartfelt contrition. True preaching is the same message rung out by John the Baptist in the wilderness and by Christ to the people, the old gospel doctrine of sorrow for sin, repentance and confession that ministers must preach today, laboring perseveringly, earnestly and wisely until the sinner sees himself a transgressor of God's law and exercises repentance toward God and faith toward Christ. Such repentance requires a broken heart, contrition of soul, confession of sin, and falling upon the Rock, Christ Jesus. When the sinner is conscious of his helpless condition and feels his need of a Saviour, he may come with hope and faith to Christ, and Christ will accept the soul that comes in true repentance and will not despise a broken and contrite heart.
Forgiveness is obtained only through the merits of the crucified and risen sin-pardoning Saviour, who became man's substitute and surety and accomplished redemption, imputing His righteousness to the repentant sinner, while loving and clinging to sin is incompatible with His grace. The disciples were commissioned to proclaim remission in His name but were given no power themselves to remove guilt or cleanse anyone from sin, not even one stain from the children of Adam; they were to go forth preaching His merits, assuring repentant sinners of mercy in Christ and proclaiming the wrath of an offended God against the impenitent, while Christ Himself will execute the sentence. The commission grants no ecclesiastical right to forgive sin, to sell indulgences so men may sin without incurring God's displeasure, to accept a gift or bribe for cloaking sin and escaping merited censure, or to visit God's wrath upon the offender. Whoever attracts people to himself as one invested with power to forgive sins turns souls away from the heavenly Pardoner to a weak and erring mortal and incurs the wrath of God.
The church may under inspired guidance censure or remove censure and may assure a repentant sinner of Christ's forgiveness, but such action is not priestly absolution or authority to forgive sins, for Jesus alone forgives sin. The terms for receiving or refusing forgiveness are prescribed and published by Christ's chosen ministers, but not according to their own judgment; they are the terms God has set.
The invitation is full and free salvation for all classes of people and all who will, teaching that Christ came to pardon the repentant. All who confess their sins and come to Christ may be freely received, reconciled to God, restored to favor, offered everlasting life, and given assurance of pardon. All who come to the Father through faith in Christ, laying hold of the Saviour by faith and following His example, turning and believing, receive that assurance, made possible because the Saviour suffered the penalty of death, and through His sufferings every soul may be sanctified through belief of the truth. The disciples, as witnesses of His life of self-sacrifice in behalf of the world, were entrusted with this message of mercy to be given first to Israel and then to Jews and Gentiles everywhere, gathering believers into one church, with His presence going with them as they labor in faith and confidence to the farthest part of the habitable globe.
This proclamation of pardon for sin and salvation through repentance is the ministry of the gospel Word, grounded in the merits of His crucifixion and resurrection and in understanding the Scriptures and prophecies concerning Christ, as the apostles traced prophetic history from Adam to Christ crucified while urging repentance. It is carried out through the witness of Christ's followers who call others to repentance in His name, and those who accept forgiveness are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, welcomed into church fellowship, and to show a divine change in their lives. It is not to be displaced by medical missionary work. This message of mercy, calling people to repentance and proclaiming forgiveness of sins in Christ's name, is to be proclaimed again just before Christ's second coming.
Beginning at Jerusalem
Beginning at Jerusalem sets the order of the work: testimony is first to be borne at the home center and then extended outward through Judea and Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth. Those who carry truth must first have their own hearts imbued and transformed by the Spirit, receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit with its sure connection with heaven, illumination, new courage and joy to comprehend the depth and fullness of God's love before they begin. Their labor must then commence at home, with families receiving the benefit of their influence and a well-disciplined home demonstrating the transforming power of the Spirit. From there the circle widens so the whole neighborhood perceives interest for its salvation and receives faithful presentation of truth as important as that for those far away, then to adjoining cities and towns until the message is given to the uttermost earth.
Jerusalem was fitting because it had been the scene of Christ's amazing condescension and sacrifice for the human race. There, clad in the garb of humanity, He had walked and talked with men, though few discerned how near heaven came to earth when He dwelt among them, in the land of Judea of which Jerusalem was the metropolis and His birthplace. There He had suffered, been rejected, condemned and crucified. Rather than abandoning the very place where He had taught and faced rejection for a field expected to be more receptive, the apostles were to cultivate it until the seeds of truth bore fruit.
The first offer of mercy was to be made there even to those who had killed Him and taken part in arranging His death, offering pardon and calling them back from disobedience and apostasy. As eyewitnesses of Jesus and His resurrection they were to explain the prophecies fulfilled in Him, present convincing evidence, and proclaim salvation to the world. The gospel there was also for many who secretly believed Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah and for many who had been deceived and misled by priests and rulers. To them the call to repentance was to be proclaimed with truth made plain that remission of sins could be obtained through Christ alone, giving those misled another opportunity to accept Him.
The timing was most fitting because all Jerusalem was stirred and agitated by the thrilling events and scenes of the past few weeks, so preaching then would make the deepest impression. Beginning there met enemies who tried to extinguish the truth by murdering Him and by spreading false reports about His resurrection, hoping to silence it there. Those falsehoods were to be met by positive testimony from men who had talked with Christ after His resurrection and had seen His ascension, who boldly took up the work where Christ had laid it down instead of giving up faith as His enemies expected. Multitudes from many parts of the world were gathered there at the crucifixion and heard the false reports, and before those same multitudes the disciples with the power of the Holy Spirit resting upon them bore witness that Christ is the Resurrection and the Life. People from many nations heard the testimony in Jerusalem, saw the day of Pentecost, and those who returned home carried the preaching of turning from sin and forgiveness in His name to their homes in many places and beyond.
The apostles were to continue there despite hatred, oppression and jealousy until truth bore fruit, remaining in Jerusalem as their first field of labor until the Spirit directed them to go elsewhere. The commission thus gives priority to home missions and to reaching people in one's own country and community before entering new fields, beginning at home and extending to neighbors. In later application this means beginning at Battle Creek and doing the required work there first before bearing testimony in other places east of the Rocky Mountains. Jerusalem as the earlier starting place and source of gospel light is compared with Wittenberg, where Luther's teaching made the light of truth shine.
Witnesses Empowered by Spirit
Those sent are witnesses of His suffering and resurrection, of His death and burial and rising, of His ascension and of His life of self-sacrifice given for the world. The worldwide preaching of repentance and forgiveness in His name rests on that suffering and rising as the fulfillment of Scripture, and it is entrusted to the disciples as witnesses and extends to His followers who carry it to those who have not heard. As they grasped the prophecies as fulfilled realities, their testimony to Christ and to God's love carried divine assurance. They were appointed to carry this message to every nation beginning at Jerusalem, but only after receiving power from the Father.
They were to tarry in the city of Jerusalem until endued with power from on high by the promise of the Father, and not begin the work at once until thus fitted. That fitting is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, giving connection with heaven, illumination, new courage and joy to comprehend God's love. That anointing was essential to success and would qualify them to go forth in the missionary spirit to labor in cities and towns that know not the truth, opening new fields and lifting the standard in every city and in all parts of the earth. His abiding presence to the end of the world and His omnipotence go with the human workers united with divine power, with the Spirit sent from heaven in rich abundance as the heavenly endowment.
They therefore assembled together at Jerusalem, put away all differences, and continued with one accord in prayer and supplication in expectation of the promised blessing. This unity and prayer was that they might preach in the demonstration of the Spirit and in the power of God. Though they faced great danger as sheep in the midst of wolves, they were of good courage because Christ had risen from the dead and revealed Himself to them.
After receiving the Holy Spirit they preached with power, and thousands were converted in a day. The work was begun at Jerusalem, where three thousand were converted in a day, and many were added to the believers as they proclaimed the risen Saviour. His presence goes with them as they labor in faith and confidence. Their blessing is sanctification unto loving, gentle, kind lives, yet they were not ready to undertake the work until they received the promised power from above.
Worldwide Mission to All
The preaching commanded is to all nations, tongues and peoples, to the farthest part of the habitable globe and the remotest earth, as good news to be carried to other places and far away and then told onward by those who receive it. It is for every nation and for all peoples and places, requiring the work to reach beyond any one locality into neglected communities. The message was to be given first to Israel at Jerusalem, where Christ had suffered and been rejected, and then to Jews and Gentiles everywhere, gathering all who believe into one church. The command included the Gentiles as well as the Jews, though the disciples took years to understand its full scope.
The commission belongs not only to the first apostles but to Christ's followers in every age, to all who believe, to every converted soul and to the many believers now, with its promised power still promised to them. It is warfare against evil and work given to all God's people, not to a few ordained ministers, laid out before every man, woman and child enlisted in the Lord's army, who when He calls are to respond with willing service. Ministers are to lay this obligation on the many rather than waiting for earthly councils to plan it. God's power accompanies those who proclaim it, and faithful work in this commission would warn the whole world and, if fulfilled, Christ would return in power and great glory.
The preaching sows the seed of the living Word in the prepared soil of the heart, continuing Christ's teaching where one plants and another waters but only God gives the increase as His messengers cooperate with Him and obey His laws of cause and effect, a sacred trust committed to men with woe to anyone who retards it. Carrying it out includes sending missionaries to foreign countries, reaching neglected communities and dark diseased places in humble simplicity beyond those who already know the truth to those who have never heard, and bringing Bible truth before many to prepare a people to stand in the day of the Lord. Obeying it means consecrating talents of means and influence to soul-saving and putting means into circulation so that converts in turn convert others, with every member filled with the Spirit for irresistible efficiency to arise and shine and save souls perishing in sin. Withholding the truth through selfishness leaves the worldwide witness undone and fellow beings unwarned in spiritual darkness, while all who have the light of present truth are to share the gospel and Christ's redeeming love. After completing His mission Jesus assures the disciples of His authority and sends them as human agents to carry it forward in His name, proclaiming repentance toward God and faith in Christ, and the Spirit's coming would fully illuminate their understanding with hope the Jewish people would accept Him.
Present Duty and Application
Teachers must first learn the lessons from Christ Himself and then teach others what He commanded, for preaching what He commanded is their special work from which nothing is to divert them. They are to dwell more upon these words, putting aside human suppositions and explanations that confuse minds instead of explaining truth. The command belongs to His last words before ascending to heaven, spoken after He opened understanding to see from the Scriptures that He must suffer and rise the third day and that repentance and remission must therefore be preached in His name.
Those who witness these things must be filled with the missionary spirit and go forth to labor in cities and towns that know not the truth. They are not to colonize in one place, adding building to building at Battle Creek, nor to hold camp meetings over and over in the same place. They are to open new fields and lift the standard of truth in every city and in all parts of the earth, using for that worldwide work the heavenly blessings and money entrusted to them.
Obeying the commission requires advancing the work by consecrating talents of means and influence to the Master's service and placing truth before those who do not know it. Means are to be put into circulation for soul-saving, so that men and women will be converted who in their turn will convert others. The church is to understand the great work to be done, and every member is to become filled with the power of the Holy Spirit for an efficiency that cannot be resisted, to arise and shine and to enter into Christ's joy by doing all possible to save souls perishing in sin. The mission begins at home and extends to neighbors before entering new fields, first reaching the community nearest at hand. That requires solid work in neglected places, carrying the message beyond those who already know the truth to those who have never heard it, and making unworked cities centers of truth.