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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Take your Bible, turn it to the book of Matthew 28. Matthew chapter 28. There’s a verse here that I want you to see. Matthew chapter 28, Jesus Christ has come back from the dead. He was going to ascend into heaven. Before He left He gave a a great command. This is what he said. You see there in Matthew 28? Look in verse 16, then the 11 disciples went away into Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me, in heaven and in earth. Go you therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Now in these few verses is the great commission given. It’s also a great command givenhttps.

So the command as far as we know has never been rescinded. It’s never been altered. It was given to his disciples and they were to win others and pass on the command that was given to them. It says and teaching them to observe all things which I have commanded you. So it’s here, it’s clear in God’s Word. Now this is at the end of the book of Matthew. Now in the book of Luke, I want to turn there, Matthew, Mark, Luke, the last chapter in the book of Luke.

The Lord used Luke to write the gospel of Luke, but also the book of Acts. And in the book of Luke, it makes this statement. If you look there in verse 46 of chapter 24, Anne said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it be who of Christ who suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. That repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem and year witnesses of these things.

Now many people believe and the disciples at the beginning, I believe, did believe that when Jesus says, go into all nations, it means go into all the nations and reach all the Jews. As though God didn’t want anybody else just the Jews, because He did say in Matthew chapter 10, go not until the house of the Gentiles, only to the house of Israel do not go to the Gentiles. So now he’s telling them to go into all the world, but is it because Jews were scattered upon all the earth?

So he says that the gospel wasFirstly preached to the Jew first and then also to the Gentiles. It has already been preached first to the Jews. There’s a lot of time I listen to Jewish people that are missionaries and they try to put a like a guilt upon you that you’ve got to support them because they’re a preacher to the Jews and you’re supposed to preach to the Jews first. So in your missions given it should always be to the Jews first.

What I don’t really believe that because I do believe that as you study the Scriptures they did take the gospel to the you first, but that wasn’t the limit. That wasn’t the only ones that were supposed to be reached with the gospel. The Lord had told him, I want you to go into all nations and preach the gospel to every creature. That would mean more than just the Jewish people. Now as you go into the book of Acts, there is one key verse there that says in chapter 1 and verse 8, for the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me.

And Judea, Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the year. So it was a command given to reach the whole world and every individual. So this is what they were commanded to do. And then when you get to the book of Acts, it was a continuation of those very things. Now, here in the book of Acts, as we studied some time back about the division in the book of Acts. We talk about the great divide. The first half of the book is about Jerusalem being the center part and then the last half of the book been about Samaria.

And then the first part of the book of Acts about the apostle Peter and in the last half of the book about the apostle Paul. And so this is what it is laid out and so we have come to the place where we know as we study these scriptures, if you wondered what did the Lord mean when He told them to go into all the world and preach the gospel? Well if you read the book of Acts you’ll find out that whatever the apostles did, it must give evidence to what the message was.

What was the command? What were they supposed to do? And that was to reach other people with the gospel. And sometimes we as God’s children would rather do anything in the whole world except that one thing. But that is why it’s so important. So as you go through the book of acts you’ll find that it’s just one soul-winning adventure after the other. And even on the day of Pentecost, if you look there in chapter 2, even when they spoke in languages, it was for the purpose of the gospel being made simple and clear.

Now whether or not it was simply used at this time to convince the unbelieving Jews, because that’s what the tongues were for, a sign for the unbelieving Jews to reach them. And if you’ll notice there, it names in chapter 2 of the book of Acts and verse 8. He says, and how we hear every man in our own tongue. That means they heard in their own language wherein we were born. And then it names the places where they were born.

So on the day of Pentecost, which is the first time this has ever happened, the people there understood what was being said. It’s not unknown. If there is an unknown language, then it’s not a language, because if nobody knows it and there’s no value to it, it’s just ungrunt and all the rest of it. He says, words have to have a meaning. And so he goes down through here and then he says this in verse 11, and creates an Arabian’s, We do hear them speak in our tongue or our language, and then it says the wonderful works of God.

So they not only heard they understood what was being said. And so, but the purpose of all of this was for the opportunity to not only gather a crowd together because here on the day of Pentecost they came from all these nations, and now you have the apostle Peter going to be able to speak to all these Jewish people there, and to those that were instrumental in putting Christ to death. Because he says, ye have, by wicked hands, you have taken and slain him.

And so as you go through, it says that they finally came to the conclusion in verse 36. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified both, Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts and they said, Peter, and to the rest of the apostle, men and brother, what shall we do? What do we do? So then he told them how they could have their sins forgiven and receive the Holy Spirit.

And so a lot of people heard and believed, see in verse 41, then they that gladly received his word were baptized and the same day they were added unto them about three thousand souls. That means added to whatever they had. And then it talks about there’s many more. Look down in verse 47, praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved or was being saved. So all these people will results of them preaching the gospel.

This is what the Lord wants. The Lord wants everybody to hear the gospel so they can believe the gospel And because of that, they get to go to heaven when they die. So you’ll find out one adventure after another, somebody preaching, somebody hearing and believing. Somebody preaching, somebody believing, somebody preaching, somebody getting mad and angry and killing somebody. But there was a result. Something happens, and that’s why you don’t always win everybody you talk to. Some people go win.

Some people, they’ll start an argument with you. Some people want to take out your lights and do your wrong, do your harm. I’ve only had a little of that, not a lot. So I try to pick and choose a little bit. If they’re bigger than me, we’re cautious. Or don’t get too close. But what he says in Acts 4 and look in verse 5, How many of them which heard the word, and there’s that word, delete. That is the result of them hearing the word, believe in it.

That’s why we keep teaching the word, teaching the word, teaching the word. Why? Because we’re hoping somebody will believe it. See, we’re not the Savior. You and I, we don’t save anybody. The Lord saves the person that trusts the Lord. The Lord will save them, but we’ve got to get the message to them because that’s the only way they can be saved, so they’ve got to hear it. So that’s why we tell it. This is why whenever we sometimes have people that they can’t tell everybody because they’re some of your planes scared of death, but they would rather pay some money for somebody else to do it any way you can.

But see that your purpose of your life is because you want people to trust Christ as their savior. One of these days it’s all going to be over. We’re going to be in heaven. And that could be soon. The more I get closer to 70 years old, the more I realize that, you know, you’re going to run out of time. But anyway, says there in verse four, Hobbit, many of them which heard the word believed and the number of the men was about 5,000.

And as you go through, and there’s all these stories, but not everybody believed the message. Some did, some didn’t. Now, one of the big turning points was the death of Stephen. You see, sometimes the Lord has to allow persecution to make people do what He says to do. Did God tell the people to go into all the world? Yeah, and they didn’t want to go. They wanted to stay right there. And so the church in Jerusalem is going, but what about the world?

Well, nobody wanted to go yet. So when Stephen died, and I want you to see this, Looked there in chapter 8 chapter 8 Stephen was a deacon and he had preached a pretty powerful sermon But he made people mad See you don’t always please everybody But the Jewish people were really upset with him and so what did they what did they want to do with him? Just just back up just a tab look in verse 54 of chapter 7 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth, but he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

Then they cried out with a loud voice, This is wonderful. I’m so excited. Yay. No, not exactly. And it says, they stopped their ears, ran upon him with one accord, cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus received my Spirit. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord laid not this sin to their charge.

And when he had said this, he fell asleep. He died. And as I know of, I don’t know how many sermons this man got to preach, but it couldn’t have been many. Couldn’t have been many. And now he’s dead. But because of his death, there was somebody else that was there who gave consent unto his death. And that was a man by the name of Saul. Later on, you know him as the apostle Paul. Paul was a bad man.

Paul was an evil man, but he didn’t think he was. He thought he was just being a good Jew, trying to stop these heresies. So there was great persecution that came to the church at Jerusalem. And when the church had all these problems and the persecution came of what was the result of it. We’ll see there in verse one of chapter eight, and Saul was consenting unto his death and at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem.

And they were all scattered abroad. So the Lord has a way of allowing the persecution to accomplish His will. So the people went everywhere and wherever they went they told people about what they had seen and what they’ve heard. I used to think boy I wish I could just keep everybody in one church. What a church you would have. Everybody stayed together but you get on some people come they listen they stay a while and then they go. Nobody is forever.

Everybody comes. Somebody come. They trust the Christ is Savior and they’re gone. And so it that’s the way you say, well man, if you can just keep them up. But see, God keeps people on the move. They’re always everywhere. They come and they live and they go someplace. I’ve gotten a lot of phone calls over the years of people who came out of my ministry up there in Minnesota, who came out of my ministry in Colorado, who came out of my ministry up here in Georgia, of people that I’ve reached over the years and they’ve been scattered.

They’re everywhere. But did you know that when they get a real good dose of the gospel, it doesn’t matter if it’s 10 years later, 20 years later, 30 years later, 40 years later, when you see it and you got it, you got it for the rest of your life. Because you can’t, you can’t, you can’t, forget it. When you really see it and you really got it. I don’t care how many churches you go to and all that happens to you when you understood eternal life is truly a gift and it’s not by any works or anything like that.

You listen and discern from those that speak on TV or radio, the preachers and so forth and various churches and you can discern whether they’re right or they’re wrong because you may not have spent a lot of time in one place but you heard enough and you got it down. It sticks with you for the rest of your life and God will allow you to be moved around jobs or sometimes the cause of it hardships and so forth and they have to move because of housing or all kinds of things I Have lived long enough to know just accept that as part of how God Scatters his people God doesn’t want us all in one place But those that are together should be of one mind but sometimes God will scatter you around.

And if he will do that on a large scale, because of the first period, do you think it’s possible that God can allow you to have hardships in order to get you to a doctor or a hospital or a mechanic? Because God may have something else that’s more important. See, what’s more important in life is not me trying to be so healthy. Is it God using whatever I have, I have, whether my health or an illness, or the supply of funds or the lack of fund, to use it for his honor and glory wherever you are, because we’re just passing through.

Nobody is going to stay here forever. And you and I are supposed to come to the conclusion, the decision, God ought to be free to do with me whatever he wants, any way he wants, without any back talk from me. Now, that’s easy preaching and hard living. It’s so easy to say that until something happens. Then we wait, well, Lord, anything but this, anything but that. And God said, I’ll decide. And so you have to learn how to walk with it, or just trust him.

And sometimes have you ever think that things are going to to be worse than they are. Sometimes we’re worry-worried, aren’t we? We can worry over almost nothing because we don’t… It’s out of our power, it’s out of our hand. We can’t make something happen. And so as you go through here and you’ll see this, look what he says in verse 4. in verse 4. And verse 4 says, therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere, and you ought to unline this preaching the word.

And this is done. Now the disciples and so forth, they were still there. They hadn’t left yet. But look what he says up here in verse, I want you to see the last part of verse 1, where it says, and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, get to accept the apostles. So that means whoever these people were, it had to be the ones that were reached by the apostles because now it’s other people that are leaving.

And this is only within a few years after Christ died. So you’re talking about young believers, their whole lives being uprooted and scattered. And the Bible says they went everywhere preaching the Word. And then you have the Apostle Paul who gets saved. But remember the story of the Ethiopian eunuch and Philip, how that he had a great revival going on there in chapter 8. And the next thing you know, he joins himself to this chariot. And he says, understand if thou what thou readeth?

And he says, how can I accept some man should guide me unless somebody guide me? There’s reasons why these verses are in the scriptures so that you and I would always remember somebody needs me. Somebody needs me. Somebody needs me to help guide them. See you can’t save them, but you can guide them in the truth. And all he did was, this is Jesus. And so who is he talking about? He’s talking about Jesus. And to help people to understand the Scriptures, it’s so good.

And it’s so simple. It’s such a blessing. Then in chapter 9, so you have the apostle Paul. And how he trusts Christ is his Savior. But see, that experience on the road to Damascus, it’s another soul winning experience. God saved this man, look how many other people were now reached. But not only was there a great persecution because of Stephen, now the apostle Paul was also greatly hated and nobody wanted anything to do with him. The disciples didn’t really trust him because they knew what he had done.

So at the beginning of ministry, it wasn’t a piece of cake for him. I mean, if he had been in Florida and they had taken a poll, like I think we’ve had a few polls taken lately, he would have probably been not on the bottom of the list. And yet God had plans for him. But did you know it was about seven years, six or seven years later that opportunities began to open up for the Apostle Paul? Did you know that after he had been rejected and he’d spent some time on the backside of the Arabian desert and God dealing with him and teaching him some things.

And then when he finally goes to Jerusalem, they don’t want anything to do with him. Barnabas has to try to get the people to accept him. Why? Because they, he had a testimony. He persecuted the Christians. He has to overcome that. Have you ever heard some of these politicians that are running and they, They remind them of every word they’ve ever said. They’ve got videos of 15, 20, 30 years ago where they blew their nose or where they picked their nose or they blinked their eyes or they sneezed or it doesn’t matter.

Whatever they’ve done, it’s almost like the Bible and God said, every idle word. And some of those politicians sure wish they could go back and change what they’ve said and done. And it’s out there. But what Paul had done was out there. And he had already had a testimony, a reputation, and people were scared. They couldn’t trust this guy. And yet Paul was a great individual because God used him to write the Scriptures. You see, he had gone back to Tarsus where he was born.

And Tarsus is in the goth of the Mediterranean, way up high, way up here. And then of course down through here you have Antioch, and then you have Caesarea Philippi, and then you’re going down the coast and so forth with Joph and all these places. And so they had already got the gospel to Cypher, which is an island out there in the Mediterranean. and the Phoenicians, which was also way up high here. And so, they were the Jews that had been scattered out and they called them the Grecians.

But the Grecians were, well, they were Jews. But they weren’t living in Jerusalem or born in Jerusalem. But like the apostle Paul, he was a Jew. But he was a Roman citizen. And not everybody was a Roman citizen, but he was. So take your Bible now and turn there to the book of Acts in chapter 11. And look there in verse 19. In verse 19 of the book of Acts, in chapter 11, now they, of which were scattered abroad, upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, traveled as far as Venus and Cyprus and Antioch preaching the Word to none but unto the, and you ought to underline it, Jews only, Jews only, because they didn’t know about Cornelius yet.

The word hadn’t got out. Hey, the Gentiles can be saved too. But everybody went everywhere and all they reached was the Jews. It’s kind of like us. Let’s say for example, if I was a black man and the Lord says, Yankee going, oh, we’re a priest of the gospel. And in my mind, I’m thinking, only do the black man. Only do the black man. Or if I was an Indian, only do the Indians. Only do the Indians. Or if I was a white, only do the white, only do the white.

But God’s Word says the whole world. I have been in two slums. I’ve been in Indian reservations. I’ve seen poor folks. I’ve been down in New Mexico. I’ve been in the India. I’ve been in Egypt. I’ve seen all these poor people. I’m so glad that God gave to us a message for everybody. everybody, everybody, anybody. And that’s why we should know that and believe that because it’s the most important thing. And even the people who treat you wrong, mean and ugly and dirty.

You’re supposed to remember this. Christ died for that person. The Lord loves that person. Now you may want to just send them to meet the maker early, but God wants you to reach that person because he loves that person. You say, well you don’t know how that person treated me. God doesn’t care how he treated you. God wants you to treat him in a way God wants you to reach him for him. God wants you to go out of your weight for him.

God wants you to sacrifice what for him. Why you do all of it for him? But see if you don’t love him, It doesn’t matter what you do. That’s why Christ asked Peter, he says, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? That’s the answer. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. Part two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast.

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Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcasts of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.