Let's start off where Jesus does in this verse. He makes it clear from the start that the authority to do what He is about to do comes from God, that He is not just working on His own authority in giving this commission to the church. This is the commission Jesus gave to His church, or you might even call it their marching orders which lays down what they are to do as well as what order they are to be done in - that is to go through out the whole world, to instruct people in order to get converts, make Christians of them, then baptize those who do respond and become Christians, then those that have become Christians and have been baptized indoctrinate (or teach) fully ALL the instructions, doctrines and practices Jesus had taught the disciples. A commission given to someone is a job given that person.

Now - lets establish who the "them" is Jesus is referring to. He is talking to the disciples as a whole as the very word "them" implies. At this time there was no one else present so these people present were the ones Jesus was speaking to - them and them only.

But - Was he telling this group of men as individuals to go carry out the commission, which in effect would give them as disciples the commission, or was this order an on going, year after year, century after century type of order? This is very important - because if it was a year after year, century after century order it could not have been given to the disciples because they have not lasted down through the centuries, as individuals nor has their office as disciple.

I think the last line of the commission makes it clear it was meant as an ongoing order to carry on down through the centuries from then until the end of our present age - not by these men as individuals because these men certainly was not expected to live down through the centuries, and we know they haven't. So in all common sense we understand Jesus to be talking to an organization - - referred to by Jesus Himself as MY Ekklesia - or called out assembly. Or another phrase Jesus used - MY Body, or Jesus' Flock. All expressions implying a localized, small group of people. Jesus DID expect that organization to continue down through the centuries in the form of His Baptists churches. And it has. In fact He promised it would against all opposition from the "gates of hell."

Let's go now to another scripture - Luke 24:46:49 - And said unto them Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

Why did Jesus so emphatically instruct these disciples to tarry at Jerusalem until further instructions from Him?

If we read the latter part of verse 49 we will see why. God says for them to wait for something very important - that something they needed in their mission work they did not have yet so they must wait to get it. That something was power - the power of God which includes the actual power of the Holy Spirit in the church as well as the authority from God that comes with the Holy spirit entering and empowering the church. Two very important ingredients of any true New Testament Church, then and now. In fact essential ingredients in order to be accepted as a church of Jesus Christ. It makes the difference between "life & death" so to speak. If you have those ingredients you are a church of Jesus Christ - if a church does not have those ingredients they are not a church of Jesus Christ.

What would have happened if these disciples had not waited as instructed? Obviously, if the disciples had not waited they would have gone out in the mission field with no power from God, no authority and the Holy spirit would be absent from any work they would do. The only authority they would have was their own - not God's. Any church they established would not be of Jesus Christ.

We have to be very careful in our day to not make the same mistake. All other denominations do this very thing - go out under no authority but their own. How do they do this? By not "waiting on the Lord to be empowered from on high", making sure they have that power passed on to them.

God gave that power to His church personally there in Jerusalem by entering that first church. He will only do that once, He will never do it again, any more than He will start human physical, or any other kind of life that may pass out of existence. God gave humans (and all creation) the ability to perpetuate themselves so He would never have to personally create anyone else or even give them the breath of life. We know this from the animals that have gone extinct - their line of life stopped and God will never restart that line of life again. He did the same with that church in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. God told the church "TO GO" - and by doing so gave it the ability to perpetuate itself so He would not have to come down and restart its life over and over again down through the ages.

The only way this power of the Holy spirit is passed from generation to generation is for a new group wanting to be established as a church go to an already established church who already has that power and ask her to support and bless her and establish the new group as a church. By doing so the older church ( sometimes called "Mother Church" because "mother" implies the bring forth of a new generation) is passing on her "life" - or power & authority to this new generation of church.

When was that power first given to the church? When did the Holy spirt enter into the church to give her that authority or power that Jesus so emphatically orders them to wait in Jerusalem for?

I already mentioned - at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost - lets read Acts 2:1-4.

Acts 2:1-4 - And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were witting. And they appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all fill with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the spirit gave them utterance.

If we read the latter part of chapter 1 we would see who is in this upper room. It was Jesus' Ekklesia - His called out ones. At that time the church had 120 members, and apparently everyone of those 120 members were present on this particular day.

The Holy Spirit came on each one and into the church itself filling them with power and giving them the authority to "go ye". The Holy spirit landed on each one of them in the form of a flame of fire - not an actual flame of fire but just looked like a flame. The Holy spirit also filled the room they were in - they could feel His presence. Now the disciples could go out as instructed when Jesus gave them the commission.

But the church people at first did not spread out into the for flung countries very fast. So the Lord brought upon the church a serious persecution which forced the spreading out of many people into countries far and wide.  

Lets read: This is just after the persecution and the resulting fleeing of many from Jerusalem for their lives because of that persecution -

Acts 11:20-22 - And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord. Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch.  

Why was the church at Jerusalem concerned about those being saved through those who had fled Jerusalem because of the persecution?

It was because those who had left under those circumstances did not have any authority to establish churches or hold baptism or the Lord's Supper. There was nothing wrong in getting converts but the problem was what to do with those who were becoming Christians. There was great danger of those individual people just gathering together and forming their own organizations and calling them Jesus' churches but without proper authority, not to mention fallowing away in doctrinal points - just as many churches of today do.

So the church at Jerusalem rectified this problem by sending Barnabus WITH all the authority needed to establish churches, and all else to do with churches , baptize and hold the Lord's Supper for example. The work must have been very large as Barnabus later sought out Paul's help in this work.

This is the way we Baptists still do things - we MUST if we want to be recognized as Jesus church by Jesus.

22. Now lets go to - Acts 13:1-4 - Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work wither unto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus.

Notice something here. Those taking part in the persecution of the church did it to eliminate the church from off the face of the earth. To destroy it so no more Christians existed. But God uses it for HIS purpose - and that was to spread the Gospel far and wide away from Jerusalem. Note whose will was fulfilled. God's of course. This was because those who fled went to cities far away from Jerusalem and where ever they went preached the Gospel and many were being saved as a result. The Jesus' church spread far beyond Jerusalem just as Jesus' said for them to do. The opposite of what the people causing the persecution where trying to do!

In this last scripture is a good example of certain men picked out by the Holy Spirt for a work. But notice something very important - the Holy spirit did not just send these men out on His own authority - notice that He went through this local church of Antioch. The church under the instructions of the Holy Spirit sent these men out into the mission field and signified this authority the church gave them by the laying on of hands. Jesus' church on earth is the tool of God put on earth to act on His behalf under the Leadership of Jesus Christ in heaven and the Holy spirit here on earth. The Holy spirit recognizes this, and anything done in the physical must go through this establishment God put on earth for this very thing - His church.

So note this closely - just being picked by the Holy spirit is not enough - there must be two sources of authority to be sent. A person must be approved or picked by the Holy spirit, but also be sent or ordained for the work by a local church - usually the one they belong to. The work must be sanctioned by the Local church. To do otherwise would defeat the purpose of the church. Why have it if the Holy Spirit by-passed the church anyway?

This is important to note because there are pastors out there that think just because they have been put in their place by the Holy Spirit that the church has no say in whether he stays where he is or not - in other words can't fire him no matter how far astray he may go whether in doctrine or morally. That is pure arrogance and leads to dictatorship in the pastor taking over all power in the church!

From this point on we can say with all assurance that the church did carry out the commission Jesus gave it.

But I do not have time to go into this. I wish I did have time to tell you that in just one lifetime millions of people were added to the church, that by the end of the New Testament period millions had been saved. The average lifetime of those days was about 40 years. So in 40 years millions - yes millions - of people have come to know the Lord as Saviour - became Christians.

I wish I had time to tell you that against all opposition especially from the Roman Catholic Church millions were being saved right up until the Protestant reformation. Yes millions were being saved but millions were being killed too. But not all - as Jesus had promised the Gates of hell would not prevail against His church, and they didn't. They did great harm, but did not wipe the church out of existence as they tried so hard to do.

I wish I could tell you of this greatest of blights against the church of Jesus Christ - how the Protestant movement did more and is still doing more damage than any other source to the cause of Christ.

How? By being counterfeit churches - ones that looked so much in many ways like Jesus's church it has fooled millions upon millions of people and has sent them to an eternity in hell instead of going to heaven where they thought they were headed, drawing them away from Jesus' true church. The Roman Catholic Church killed many people in order to keep people from joining the Baptists but now he had another tactic. Deceive them instead. He did not care how he kept the people out of God's hands, and in his own, as long as he did. This introduction of all these counterfeit churches was a great tool in Satin's hand. Now he was not only keeping millions in his hand but billions - and without the blood shed of his previous tactics - keeping people by fear of death if they left his church - the Roman Catholics.

I wish I had in this short message to tell you of the many firsts of the Baptists down through the ages.

We were first to have the modern day Sunday School - and the first to send missionaries into far distant lands. We went where "no man had dared go before" - even in North America we were the first into areas that had not been settled by white man before.

There are many more firsts but I must end here.

So yes, I can say with all assurance the Baptists have been carrying out the commission Jesus gave it 2000 years ago, and will continue to do so until He returns for us. Praise God.

The Christian Counter