Matthew 28. The title of this
message is, All Power Given to Jesus Christ. That man they thought
they had done away with. They thought they had finally
put an end to this blasphemer, they called him. And here He
stands, declaring that all power, all power, is given to Him in
heaven and in earth. Now in verses 11 and 15, we see
a conspiracy. It says in verse 11, were going, the ones whom the
Lord said to go tell My disciples to meet Me in Galilee. Some of
the watch, the ones that were there watching the tomb, the
Roman soldiers were there keeping watch, making sure no one stole
the body and told the story that He had risen. And anyway, so
some of them, they went into the city and they told the chief
priests all the things that were done. You would think that after the
earth shook the second time and these Roman soldiers who were
there at the sepulcher told what happened that they would say,
like that centurion did, surely he was the son of God. But they
were so blinded by hate And there's nothing more blinding than hate.
It is blinding. They hated Jesus Christ. So what they do, they get together,
the elders, they get together and they take counsel. It's a
counsel of wickedness. Don't think when a bunch of religious
people get together that they are having a good counsel. It's
not. They got together to figure out,
now how are we going to deal with this problem? So here's what they did. They
gave a large money, a large sum of money to the soldier, hush
money. These are the religious leaders.
These are the best people in town. These are the law keepers. These are the Sunday school goers
and the church goers. These are the best there is.
And they're given a bribe to cover up their sins, what they're
doing. They're bribing these soldiers.
And as I was reading this again last night, I thought, what a
witness. What a witness they gave to those
soldiers, those hardened Roman soldiers. I mean, these were
tough men. And here are what's supposed
to be the best people around, the Pharisees, and here they
come, and they're bribing us. to keep our mouth shut. And,
of course, they were going to keep their mouth shut anyway
because it meant certain death for them because they failed
at their watch. It was death for them. And, of
course, they're like, yeah, we'll shut up. Give us the money. It's
like a real advantage they're getting here just for shutting
up, and they're not going to say anything anyway. They don't
want that to come to the governor's ear. But what a witness. What a witness. I'm sure those soldiers went
away and said, you know what, any religion that produces that,
I don't want it. I don't want that. Well, after they did that, they
gave him that large sum of money, just like, you know, Judas, they
paid him off. Then the 11 disciples went away into Galilee, into
a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. His disciples are gonna see Him.
Nobody else gonna see Him, but His disciples gonna see Him.
He appeared to His disciples. You see Him, don't you? You who
believe, you see Him. You see Him in the Scriptures.
You see Him in everything. But the world doesn't see Him.
He said, the world will see me no more. But He said, you'll
see me. By faith, by faith, you see Jesus
Christ. By faith, by God-given faith,
Jesus Christ is as real to you as you are sitting where you
are. He's that real to you. But to the world, He's a historical
figure. That's all He is. But He's not
a historical figure to me and you. He's my Lord and my God. He's my Savior we just sang about.
Up from the grave, He arose. He's alive and well, as I preached
last week. Now they did as they were instructed,
and they received a great blessing from that obedience. They saw
Him. They saw Him. Where two or three
are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
We ought to get up in the morning, on Sunday morning when we are
coming together, or Thursday night, we ought to get up with
this attitude, the Lord is going to meet with us. He said to be here at Bethel
Baptist Church at 11 o'clock. He's going to meet with us. You
really believe that? Is that why you're here? Is that
why we're here? Because the Lord said He'd be
with us where we meet together. Well, they saw Him. They saw
Him. Now why did He not appear to them where they were? Why
did He not just appear to them there? Well, first of all, it
says here that the eleven disciples went away into Galilee into a
mountain where Jesus had appointed them. Everything our Lord has done,
is doing, and shall do has been appointed. I mean right down
to the place and time, I mean to the second. And God never
alters His purpose. God never alters His purpose.
If you want to call it a plan, He never alters it. If God were
to alter it, that would say that God is not perfect. He's not
perfect in knowledge. He's not perfect in His understanding.
It would denote a imperfection in God. But they went there because it
was appointed of God. Secondly, they went there and
He appeared to them there to prove their faith. Listen, this
is important. They took Him at His Word when
they were standing in front of Him and He was talking to them.
And He would tell them something and they would do it. Well, now
He's not there. Now they don't see Him. Now they
have to take Him at His Word. It's to prove their faith is
what he's doing. He's not bodily in their presence
now. Now do they believe the word? You know, it's one thing
to believe a person that's standing in front of you, talking to you.
But it's another thing whenever that person sends a word to you.
Do you still believe that person? Our Lord said this, "'Blessed
are those who believe and have not seen.'" That is, they have
not seen Me physically. "'Blessed are those who believe.'"
You take the Word of God and you believe it. And you believe
it because it's God's Word. It's His Word, that's why you
believe it. "'And then when they saw Him, they worshipped Him,
but some doubted.'" They saw Him. They saw Him with
their own eyes. It is written in 1 John 1.1,
"...that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our
hands have handled, of the Word of life." We've heard Him. We have seen Him. After His resurrection,
we have looked upon Him, we have handled Him, we've touched Him.
He's alive. He's real. They did not see a
spirit. Remember once He came walking
upon the water and the disciples were scared. They said they thought
they saw a spirit. They didn't just see a spirit. They saw a
man, the same man that was with them before He was crucified.
They saw that same man. They saw him. We have eyewitnesses. These are eyewitnesses. They
saw him. They looked upon him. He looked the same, except his
body was now glorified. He now had an immortal body. But some doubted. Some doubted. You said, that's a shame. Well,
it is. You think you'd have been one that wouldn't have doubted
if you'd have been there? I don't know why we always think
we're the ones that wouldn't have doubted. It's a shame on
them. Well, shame on me, too, because
you know how many times I've doubted? One thing you learn as you get
older is not to be too hard on people because you've done the
same thing. You've done the same thing. Some doubted. Faith in this life
is never perfect. We don't have perfect faith.
Wish we did. Ought to. Ought to. Have no reason
not to. But because of this sinful flesh,
and we have to be careful now, listen, we have to be careful
that we don't continually use that as an excuse not to grow
in faith. Let's not use that as an excuse.
But I know that it's so. I know that. But one thing I want to point
out here, that some doubted, great faith, now listen, great
faith and weak faith are both saving faith. They are both saving
faith. There are no degrees of saved,
you know that? Just like there are no degrees
of dead. If you're dead, you're dead. You've never been barely
dead. If you're dead, you're dead. And if you're saved, if God has
saved you, you're saved. There are no degrees of saved.
But now, there are degrees of enjoyment. There are degrees
of inner peace, of enjoying that peace with God. There are degrees
of rest. That's why our Lord said over
in Hebrews, it's written over in Hebrews, labor to enter into
that rest. Sounds like a paradox, doesn't
it? Labor to rest. But there are degrees of rest.
There are some who have a greater rest in Christ than other believers. Some are just anxious. I'm thinking
of Martha. You know, Martha and Mary. Martha's
in the kitchen, she's cooking, she's cleaning, and she goes
in there and says, Lord, would you make Mary get up and help
me? And Mary is sitting at His feet, listening to Him, worshiping
Him, and Martha is all anxious. That's just who we are. That's who we are. But there's
no degrees of being saved. One is saved as much as the other. But there are degrees of the
joy and the rest and the assurance. The assurance of salvation. Saved
is saved. And then he says here in verse
18, "...and Jesus came and spake to them." They thought they'd
never hear that voice again. When they saw Him on the cross,
Peter said, Lord, You can't die. You can't go to the cross. Far
be that from You. And He spake to them. Never,
never, never was there a sweeter voice to be heard than when the
Lord spake to them. And that's exactly what will
happen if God saves me. When God saves a sinner, if He's
pleased to save us, He Himself is going to speak to you. You're
not going to just say, I believe what John says. You're going
to say, I believe what God says. I believe God. And he spake to them, saying,
All power is given unto me in heaven and earth." But you notice this, that before he spoke to them,
it says they worshipped. When they saw him, they worshipped.
And as they worshipped him, he spoke to them. But here's the good news of the
gospel too. Here's part of the good news.
It's all in this gospel message. All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth. It didn't look like when He was
hanging on that cross in this mutilated flesh, they had beat
Him, so to speak, to a pulp. It didn't look like he had any
power at all, did it? And now here he stands. Here
he stands in a new body, in immortal bodies, same person, same man. And he's saying, all power is
in my hands. My hands. This is a real fact
that you and I are to live by. We live by this. Jesus Christ
has all power and all authority in heaven and in earth. There's
no place where His power is not. If God wills that the gospel
go to China and take over China or North Korea and take over
North Korea, you think they can stop it? There ain't a person,
there's nothing, there's not a devil, there's nothing that
can stop our Lord from sending the gospel
any place if He so wills to send it. I thank God He has given
us the gospel. But the gospel is not preached
in many places. Now listen, because they keep
it out, Because He can't get in there, it's because He hasn't
sent it there. That's why. I tell you, this
is where preaching has got to get back to, on the sovereign
will of God. We are at the mercy, we are in
the hands of a sovereign God. Our Lord said this, He said,
"...the gates of hell shall not prevail against you." When He's
speaking to Peter, He's talking about when Peter said, "...thou
art the Christ, Son of the living God." He said, "...the gates
of hell will not prevail against you." You know what He's saying?
He's saying that the gates of hell will not keep out the gospel. Listen, there's no harder place
on this earth If you want to talk about standing against the
gospel, then my heart, then my heart. I'm not worried. I don't
even think about borders. God has no borders. The earth
is the Lord's and the fullness thereof and they who dwell therein.
He has no borders. It's all his. When he sends the
gospel to one place, he'll send it there, and it'll be there
for a while, however long. It may be there for a few years,
a few hundred years, but eventually it'll move. It's like a wave. We've been reading, going through
2 Corinthians now, 1 Corinthians, all those churches. You know
how many churches there were over in that part of the country? You'll sit here, and here, and
here, and it'll be like this until time there's no more. He said, "...all power is given
to Me in heaven and in earth." It says in John 5.22, "...for
the Father judges no man, He has committed all judgment, all
power, all authority to the Son." As the Mediator, as the Man,
Christ Jesus, it's all in His hands. As God, He already possessed
all power, but here He's speaking of Him being the Mediator. God has turned everything over
to Jesus Christ. There's a man seated at God's
right hand that God has turned everything over to. It's in His
hands to execute. He says over in John 17 that
Bill read back in the study, Look over there, I'm going to
read it to you. Instead of a quote, I want you to see it. Great chapter, the high priestly
prayer of Jesus Christ. In verse 1 of John 17, these
words spake Jesus and lift up His eyes to heaven and said,
Father, the hour has come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son
also may glorify Thee. as thou hast given him power
over all flesh." There's not one person on this
earth, or ever has been on this earth, that is not under the
power of Jesus Christ. He does not have the power and
authority over. Not one. Not one. I was telling my brother
yesterday, he and I were talking, he called me, we were talking
about the gospel. And I told him what I said. When
I heard the gospel, I said the one thing that jumped, that really
jumped out at me, the one that really hit me the hardest in
the beginning when I heard the gospel, was that God did not
have to save me. He wasn't standing on the sideline
wanting me to accept him as my personal savior. I said, for
the first time in my life, I had a right and a proper fear of
God. He could leave me alone. He said
to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy and whom
I will, I'll harden. And God will never be worshiped
until he's worshiped at his sovereign throne. Not until then. Until then, A.W. Pink said, until
then, we'll bargain with him. We'll bargain with him. But boy,
when you come to a sovereign throne, you don't bargain, you
bow. You bow is what you do at the
throne. All power is given to me in heaven
and earth. It's written over in Philippians
5-11. Listen to this. Let this mind
be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made
himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion
as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven,
things in earth, things under the earth." There's no place
that's not going to bow to Jesus Christ. And every tongue is going
to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. And I'm going to add this, whether they like it or
not. Whether a person likes it or not, God has given us his
word. They're gonna confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord. They called him a winebibber,
a gluttonous man, a blasphemer. No, he's Lord. God, it says,
has made that same Jesus both Lord and Christ. And He did it in that order.
He did it in that order. You and I will know Jesus Christ
as our Savior when we know Him as our Lord. That's when we'll
understand and know Him as our Savior. When we bowed His feet,
what did that leper say? Lord, here I am, save me. I heard
you were in the saving business. Save me. He said, Lord, if you
will, you can make me clean. He completely submitted himself
to the sovereign mercy of God. And you know what? You can read
the Scriptures. Jesus Christ never turned anyone
away. He never turned anyone away.
Only the Pharisees who came with their self-righteousness did
He say to His disciples, leave them alone. Just leave them alone. And then this fact of Christ
having all power causes real joy. It's real joy and real comfort
to His people. The one who has all power, listen,
it's holy. Aren't you glad of that? Aren't
you glad he's not a tyrant? I'm glad he's not a tyrant. If
he has all power, I'm glad he's holy. I'm glad he's just. I'm glad he's good. This one
who has all power is meek and lowly in heart. He says, come
to me. I have the power and the authority
to save you. A gnat can't even light on you
without his permission. That's true. He will use His power for our
good at all times. That can't be said of any other
king but King Jesus." No other king. And seeing He has all power,
then no one else can put Him in check. People in their mind, they really
think there's a real battle going on here between the Lord and
Satan. No, the Lord's won. The victory's
done. It's over. He's nothing more than a pit
bull on a chain. Someone said this one time, and
when he said it, I was like, wow, I never thought of that
before. The devil is God's devil. He's not on his own is what the
person was saying. I got it. He's not out there
running loose like a loose cannon. He's not out there unchecked.
He's under the same power and authority that everyone else
is under. When he wanted to get to Job,
who did he go to? That one he was talking to is
the Lord Jesus Christ. When he wanted to get Job and
he had to get permission, Satan said, I can't touch him. He said,
you put a hedge about him. You have blessed the work of
his hands. And you've got a hedge about
him. I can't get through that edge. There is nothing that's not under
His power. Then who better to have all power
than Jesus Christ? I want Him to have it without
reserve. I want Him to have it without
reserve, without limits. I don't know anyone else that
I would say that about. I absolutely cannot say that
about anybody else but Jesus Christ. And seeing He has all power,
there's nothing too hard for Him." There's no situation. Don't ever despair. We should
never despair. We do, but we should never despair.
There's nothing too hard for the Lord. He said, is there anything
too hard for the Lord? All things are possible with
God. With God, all things are possible. Then seeing He has
all power, He can convert the hardest of sinners. There's nobody that He can't
save if it's His will. If it's His will to take a man
and save that man or a woman, He can do it. He can do it. And you know, all He has to do
is speak a word. That's all. Let there be light. All He has
to do is command the light of the gospel to shine into the
heart and give the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ,
and that sinner is saved. Saved. He can save a demon-possessed
man or a soul of Tarsus. It doesn't matter. It don't matter.
And then here he says, after saying, I have all power in heaven
and earth, now go. And you know, I never thought
about this. I was actually, I was sitting
over here, and I was thinking about the people he's speaking
to. He's speaking to the Jews. I mean, there's probably never
been a greater hatred between two people than the Jews and
the Gentiles through thousands of years. They called us dogs. I mean, they didn't get it wrong,
but they had a bad attitude about it. Their attitude was wrong. I mean, I am a dog. And I like
what that Syrophoenician woman said. The Lord said to her, he
said to her, he said, it's not right to give the crumbs, the
children's bread to the dogs. And she said, right, Lord. I'm
a dog, but I'm your dog. I'm your dog. But they didn't
realize that they were dogs too. But he's telling them to go now,
he's saying, instead of this one little nation having all
the types and the promises and the Word of God and having the
light, he says, now listen, you go to the whole world, you go
to every nation, you speak to every people the gospel, because
I'm going to save a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue
and nation under heaven. And they're like, I'm sure they're
like, well, that's different. That's different. But go, not
stand idle in the marketplace, but go out into the highways
and hedges and compel them to come in. Preach the gospel to
them. And we don't go on our own strength,
we know that. He gives us our strength and
our message to preach. and teach all nations. What are
we to teach them? The gospel, the truth. Tell the
truth on God. Tell the truth on Jesus Christ
and tell the truth on men. Just tell the truth. Christ said,
take my yoke upon you and learn of me. When I read the Bible,
I'm not trying to learn how to live. I'm trying to learn of
Jesus Christ. And I'm telling you this, learning
of Him, I learn how to live. I learn how to walk. I learn
how to talk. And it's not hypocrisy. It's real. It's real. Baptizing them in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. This shows that the
whole Trinity is involved in our salvation. We're not just
baptizing in the name of one of them. We are baptized in the
name of the Father who chose us, the Son who died for us,
and the Holy Spirit who regenerates us. All three involved in our
salvation. And then it says here to baptize
them. Baptism doesn't make you saved. It doesn't save you. It doesn't add to your salvation. Baptism shows our identification
with Jesus Christ. It's like a death, burial, and
resurrection. It shows our oneness with Him
in His death, burial, and resurrection. It shows our walk with Him in
newness of life. When we come up out of that water,
we are saying, we have a new life. We have a new life, we
are followers of Christ, we have risen from the dead. In Christ
we have. We are confessing Him. I remember
back years ago when I was a young boy, they would get you up to
the altar and you'd get up there and a hula goes on. But I have learned the way we
confess Christ, first of all, listen, let me make this clear. Coming to Christ is not a physical
move. Coming to Jesus Christ is not
a physical move. Coming to Christ is the heart.
It's a heart move. It's the heart going out to Him.
It's the heart looking to Him. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I'm God and there's none else.
It's looking to Christ. It's the heart going out to Christ. It's not a physical move. And then the way we confess that
the Lord has done something for us, the way we really confess
is we follow Him in baptism. This is how we identify with
Him, this is how we identify with His people. We are not our own, we're bought
with a price, and we desire to do our Lord's command. Because
He says, "...teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you." And Lord, I'm with you always,
even to the end of the world. We live every day on His Word. Man, He says, shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth
of God. We live on His Word. As James
said, faith without works is dead. We desire to do the Lord's
will. And our daily walk is an expression
of our faith, or lack thereof, in Christ. We look into God's
Word, and we ask the Lord to teach us, instruct us, and feed
us. This is my guide. By God's Spirit,
through His Word, this is my guide. This is it. And He says
here, last of all, And, Lord, I'm with you. I'm with you. You can't see me. Have you ever
seen Jesus Christ? I've never seen Him. I mean,
not in the flesh. I've never seen Him in the flesh.
I've never seen Him. But He gives us this assurance. I am with
you, even to the end of the world. I'm with you. Because He's about
to go out of their sight. That angel says, why are you
standing here gazing up into heaven? He's going out of their
sight. And He's been out of our sight
physically ever since. But He says, I'm with you. I'm
with you in spirit. Spirit is just as real as physical.
It is. You just can't see it. I see my body. I can't see my
soul. I have it. All right.