A Call to Action
On April 21, 1861, Charles Spurgeon delivered a powerful sermon titled “The Missionaries’ Charge and Charter”. This sermon remains a timeless call to Christians, urging them to embrace their divine mandate to spread the gospel. You can read that sermon in full here. The following is a summary.
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, ‘All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.’ Matthew 28:18-19
While I was meditating in private upon this text, I felt myself carried away by its power. I was quite unable to calmly consider its terms or to investigate its argument. The command with which the text concludes repeated itself again, and again, and again in my ears, till I found it impossible to study, for my thoughts were running hither and thither, asking a thousand questions, all of them intended to help me in answering for myself the solemn inquiry, “How am I to go, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost?
I do not know how to begin to preach this morning, but still it seems to me, standing here, as if I heard that voice saying, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.” And my soul sometimes pants and longs for the liberty to preach Christ where he was never preached before, not to build upon another man’s foundation, but to go to some untrodden land, some waste where the foot of Christ’s minister was never seen, that there ‘the solitary place might be glad for us, and the wilderness rejoice and blossom as the rose.’
I have made it a solemn question whether I might not testify in China or India the grace of Jesus, and in the sight of God I have answered it. I solemnly feel that my position in England will not permit my leaving the sphere in which I now am, or else tomorrow I would offer myself as a missionary. Oh, do none of you hear the call this morning?
The Command
First, my brethren and very briefly indeed, a few things about the command.
And we must remark, first, what a singularly loving one it is. Imagine Mohammed on his dying bed saying to his disciples, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth,” what would be his command? “Go ye, therefore, with sharp scimitars, and propound faith in the prophet, or death as the dread alternative, avenge me of the men who threw stones at the prophet, make their houses a dunghill, and cut them in pieces, for vengeance is mine, and God’s prophet must be avenged of his enemies.
But Christ, though far more despised and persecuted of men, and having a real power which that pretended prophet never had, says to his disciples, as He is about to ascend to heaven, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” It is the voice of love, not of wrath. “Go and teach them the power of My blood to cleanse, the willingness of My arms to embrace, the yearning of My heart to save!
Go and teach them. Teach them no more to despise Me, no more to think My Father an angry and implacable Deity. Teach them to ‘bow the knee, and kiss the Son,’ and find peace for all their troubles, and a balm for all their woes in Me. Go speak as I have spoken, weep as I have wept, invite as I have invited, exhort, entreat, beseech and pray, as I have done before you. Tell them to come unto Me, if they be weary and heavy laden, and I will give them rest. And say unto them, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, but had rather that he should turn unto me and live.’” What a generous and gracious command is that of the text, “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Teach them! Why, my hearer, I say again, this is a word which has to do with the rudiments of knowledge. We do not preach to children, we teach them, and we are not so much to preach to nations, that word seems too big and great for the uncivilized and childish people. Go ye, and teach them first the very simplicities of the cross of Christ.
The Argument
The argument is this, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations.”
The injunctions of the Saviour are perpetual in their obligation; they were not binding upon apostles merely, but upon us also, and upon every Christian does this yoke fall, ‘Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Three things here. Christ had suffered, bled and died, He had now risen from the dead. As the effect of his finished work, He had as Mediator received all power in heaven and in earth. There is no allusion here to his inherent power that is not given to him, that is his native right. He has, as God, all power in heaven and in earth. The text relates to him as Mediator. As Mediator, he had not this power once. He was weak, he was despised, he was forsaken, even of his God. But now, having finished the work which was given his to do, his Father honors him. He is about to lift him to his right hand and gives him, as the result of resurrection, all power in heaven and in earth. Three things, then. First, this is the picture of the church’s history, and therefore, she should teach all nations. Secondly, this is the church’s right. Thirdly, it is the church’s might, and for all these reasons she ought to teach all nations.
The Church’s Picture
First, this is the church’s picture. Christ suffers, bleeds, dies. Do you give up his cause? Do you look upon it as forlorn and desolate? He is nailed to the tree, the world abhors him, fools gaze, and sinners laugh. Do you lay down your weapons and say, “It is idle to defend such a man as this”? It is all over now, He bows his head upon the cross. “It is finished,” says He, and do your unbelieving hearts say, “Ay, indeed, it is finished. His career is over, his hopes are blighted, his prospects withered”?
Ah! little do you know that his shame was the mother of hiss future glory, that the stooping was the rising, that the crown of thorns was in fact the fruitful root out of which sprang the eternal crown of glory. He is put into the grave do you say that there is the grave of all your faith could believe, or your hope could suggest? He rises, brethren, and his resurrection takes effect, and fruit from the fact that He died and was buried. Do you not see the picture?
We have been sending out heralds of the cross these eighteen hundred years. They have landed upon many a shore to die. Fever has taken off its hundreds, cruel men have slain their scores, from the first day until now, the record of the mission is written in blood. Somewhere or other there always must be martyrs for Christ. It seems as if the church never could plow a wave without a spray of gore. She is still in Madagascar persecuted, afflicted, tormented, still are her ministers hunted about like partridges upon the mountains, and her blood is dying the shambles of her slayers.
Do you give up all hope? Shall we, as we look upon the tombs of our missionaries, say that Christ’s cause is dead? Brethren, as you turn over the long roll, and read the names of one after another who sleeps in Jesus, shall you say, “Let us close the doors of the mission house, let us cease our contributions, it is clear the case is hopeless, and the cause can never have success”? Nay, rather, the church must suffer that she may reign. She must die that she may live. She must be stained with blood, that she may be robed in purple. She must go down into the earth, and seem to be buried and forgotten, that the earth may help the woman, that she may be delivered of the man child.
Courage! Courage! Courage! The past is hopeful, because to the eye it seems hopeless. The cause is glorious, because it has been put to shame. Now, now let us gather the fruits of the bloody sowing, let us now reap the harvest of the deep plowing of agony and suffering which our ancestors have endured.
The Church’s Right
We now take a second view of the argument. This is the church’s right. All power is given to Christ in heaven and in earth. What then? Why this? Kings and princes, potentates and powers, are you aware that your thrones have been given away? Do you know it, you crowned heads, that your crowns have been given—given away from you to one who claims to be King of kings, and Lord of lords?
Do you pass decrees forbidding the gospel to be preached? We laugh at you. You have no power to prevent it, for all power is given unto Christ in heaven and in earth. Do you say that the missionary has no right upon your shores? The virgin daughter of Zion shakes her head at you, and laughs you to scorn. She has right anywhere and everywhere, she has rights in heaven without limit, and rights in earth without bound, for all power is given to her Head in heaven and in earth, and she therefore has a patent, a claim which is not to be disputed to take to herself all countries and all kingdoms, because the power above is given unto Christ.
What is that man doing on yonder shore? He has landed on an island in the South Seas. He is an intruder, banish him at once! Sirs, mind what you do, for surely you fight against God. But the man is sent away, he comes back again, or if not he, another. A severer edict is passed this time, “Let us slay him, that the inheritance may still be ours.” But another comes, and another, and another. Why do you stand up and take counsel together against the Lord, and against his anointed? These men are not intruders, they are ambassadors come to make peace. Nay, more, they are delegates from heaven, come to claim the rightful heritage of King Jesus. You, in putting them away as intruders, have denied the rights of Christ, but to deny is one thing, and to disprove another. He has still a right to you, and therefore has the missionary still a right to come whithersoever he will, preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Once or twice in my life I have met with some miserable little ministers, who, when I have gone into a village to preach, have questioned my right to preach in the village, because I ought to have asked them first, or to have consulted them. And can Christian men look on a district as their own dominion, and reckon God’s servant as a poacher on their estates, or a brigand in their territories? Is there any place on this earth that belongs to any man so that he can shut out God’s ministers?
The Church’s Might
But now, lastly, it seems to me that the argument of the text contains the church’s might. “All power is given unto me in heaven, and in earth; go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” You have power to teach, fear not. Let this be your encouragement, you must succeed, you shall prevail. There never lived another man save Christ, who could say, “All power is given me on earth.”
Canute puts his throne by the side of the sea, but the waves wet his person, and prove to his flattering courtiers that he is but a man. What power have kings over the lightning or the rushing winds? Can they control the tides, or bid the moon stand still? Power is not given unto man, even upon earth. Much less could any man say, all power in heaven belonged to him. This is a singular expression, one which only could be used by Christ. And if any other should attempt to use it, it were an imposition and a blasphemy. But the Lord Jesus Christ can say today, as He said then, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”
Let us think, then, all power is given to Christ in providence. Over common daily events He has supreme authority. You have launched upon the sea, upon a mission voyage. He rules the waves, and wings the winds. Fear not, for tempest is his trembling slave. You have come near the shore, but there are hidden reefs, and sunken rocks. Fear not, for all power is given to him in the lowest deep to guide you safely, and to bring you to your desired haven.
Conclusion
But I think many of my brethren now laboring at home might with the greatest advantage surrender their charges, and leave a land where they would scarce be missed, to go where their presence would be as valuable as the presence of a thousand such as they are here. And oh! I long that we may see young men out of the universities, and students in our grammar schools—that we may see our physicians, advocates, tradesmen, and educated mechanics, when God has touched their hearts giving up all they have, that they may teach and preach Christ.
We want Vanderkists. We want Judsons, and Brainerds over again. It will never do to send out to the heathen men who are of no use at home. We cannot send men of third and tenth-class abilities, we must send the highest and best. The bravest men must lead the van. O God, anoint Your servants, we beseech You. Put the fire into their hearts that never can be quenched. Make it so hot within their bones that they must die or preach, that they must lie down with broken hearts, or else be free to preach where Christ was never heard.
Our Lord delayeth his coming; shall we begin to sleep, or to eat, or to be drunken? Shall we not rather gird up the loins of our mind, and cry unto him, ‘Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly?
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