To the Ends of the Earth
by Darrell W. Johns
2022 · Atlanta West Pentecostal Church (Lithia Springs, GA)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Acts 1:8, Matthew 28:19-20, Mark 16:15, Luke 24:46-47, John 20:21, Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Romans 5:8, Acts 2:38, 1 John 2:2, Acts 4:12, John 3:16-17, Isaiah 45:22

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/darrell-w-johns--to-the-ends-of-the-earth
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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chapter 1 verse 8. but you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be Witnesses unto me Jesus said both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the Earth the new King James uses the phrase at the end of Acts 1 and 8 to the end of the Earth New International Version ends of the Earth I'm choosing to call this message to the ends of the Earth that seems to be the most common expression Old Testament and modern day expression of a place that's at an extreme so I want to preach to you with the help of the Lord to the ends of the Earth God bless you please be seated the scripture I read Acts chapter 1 verse 8. is a Great Commission first Jesus speaking immediately before he ascends into heaven and then Acts chapter 2 the spirit is received on the birthday of the church the day of Pentecost and the book of Acts begins to unfold 28 chapters of the historical record of the early church the expansion of the church the reach of the Gospel going everywhere to reach everyone I want to recap the gospel records of this Matthew chapter 28 verses 19 and 20. go ye therefore because he has all power go ye therefore and teach All Nations baptizing them in a name I'm glad I know the name of the father and of the son of the Holy Ghost is Jesus amen it's coming his father's name the spirit he sends in his name certainly the son is Jesus amen I'm glad I know that all the fullness of the godhead dwelt in him bodily and we are complete in him I'm glad to know that we are buried with him not them or bear with him by baptism into death verse 20 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I Am with You alway even to the end of the world Mark 16 15 parallel passage and he said unto them go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to Every Creature every created person the various translations hold up this word creature every person regardless of who they are he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved he that believeth not shall be damned or condemned Luke chapter 24 verse 46 and he said unto them thus it is written and thus it behoove Christ to suffer and arise 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 you are witnesses of these things John 20 21 Jesus has his disciples gathered close and he said as my father has sent me even so or in the same way so sinned are you Jesus commanded his disciples to go everywhere and tell everyone the good news and we need this good news of Salvation because of the bad news of sin the Bible is very clear Romans 3 23 for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God not just a few but all have sinned Romans 3 6 23 for the wages of sin is death spiritual death physical death and ultimately Eternal death is to be eternally separated from the presence of God in torments in a burning Lake of Fire we're all Sinners the wages of sin is the separation of death but in Romans 5 and 8 but God commendeth or demonstrated his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us and thank God we know how to be saved on that birthday of the church when the spirit of God was poured out and people asked what this meant the Apostle Peter who had been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven stood up the other 11 Apostles standing with him he said to them in Acts 2 38 then Peter said unto them repent turn away from your sins make an about face repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins it is repentance joined with baptism that brings the removal or the remission of sins repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost I want to take a poll here today how many of you have received the gift of the Holy Ghost like they did on the book of Acts with the evidence of speaking in a language you never learned would you just raise your hand or show some witness here today that it happened to you amen I'm thankful for salvation now there are some specific instructions each of these gospel accounts and acts of the Great Commission in Matthew Jesus said go I know in Acts 2 God brought the world to the church but that is not the model or the Mandate the Mandate is to go we go there sometimes people find Us online or they drive by the church and they feel compelled to come in but that coming is a result of us going by social media by our website by our prayers by your testimony amen when the world comes to the church we're thankful but Jesus said to go and then he said to teach All Nations not some Nations it's not exclusive to a few people it's inclusive of everyone teach All Nations and then baptize them water baptize them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and they'll be baptized with the spirit John the Baptist said I'm baptizing you with water but there's one coming after me he's mightier than I he's going to baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire amen then Matthew Jesus said you teach them how to be saved and once they're saved then I want you to teach them everything I've commanded you teach them how to live evangelism and discipleship that's God's plan go everywhere tell everyone how to be saved bring them to Jesus and when you do teach them how to live for Jesus so they can go to heaven and not go to hell the mission of our church is to lead lost people into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ and then develop them into fully devoted followers of him after Jesus gave this commission he told them that he would be with him always even to the end of the Earth now Mark said a similar thing go all the world preach the gospel Every Creature believing is here tied with baptism if you believe and are baptized you will be saved if you do not believe he will not be baptized and you will be damned the King James says or condemn in Luke Jesus is recorded as saying that his name repentance and remission of sins is going to be preached in his name among all nations not just the nation of Israel but all nations everyone everywhere it starts in Jerusalem that hometown of the Gospel but it doesn't end there in John Jesus speaks to his disciples and he he breathes on them tells them to receive the Holy Ghost and says as the father has sent me even so send by you when Jesus says this recorded by Luke in the book of Acts he said you're going to receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you he won't get this power before but you will get it after the word in the original Greek here is dunamis where we get our word Dynamite when you receive the Holy Ghost it is power to live right walk right talk right all of that but here it is power to witness it is power to tell the gospel and then demonstrate the power of the Gospel with Miracles and signs and wonders you're going to be Witnesses everywhere it will start in Jerusalem the city it'll spread to the province of Judea the size of a county but a counterpart to our states is going to go to Samaria a neighboring Province and then it's going to go to the entire world everyone everywhere to the ends of the Earth and that is what happened in the book of Acts now it's amazing to me that with all the commissioning there's also a promise in Matthew Jesus says go and he said I'll go with you in Mark he said when you go I'm going to send some signs with you these signs shall follow them that believe you will cast out Devils you'll speak in tongues you'll take up serpents if you accidentally drink something deadly it will not harm you and the serpents by the way are not intentional either it is accidental you're in a Pentecostal church but we don't handle snakes and neither should you it's not a form of worship just in case you're wondering sometimes I jokingly say we keep them in the baptistry when people have asked me that through the years but we don't handle snakes on purpose amen you're going to lay hands on the sick Jesus said and they shall recover that's our promise that's our power we are to go but he will go with you in Luke he said I'm going to send this promise upon you you're going to be endued or filled with power from on high so Jesus didn't just give you this mandate to go without giving you the power to go and in John he told them after he said even so send I you he breathed on them there and said receive ye the holy ghost that was the power and in Acts you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you now in the military they use the phrase that is called the tip of the spear the tip of the spear is piercing to the most difficult Place possible and in the military a all the resources flow to the tip of the spear and in God's Kingdom in God's Army I believe that his greatest resources flow to the tip of the spear the resources flow where there's lost people where there's a need for a miracle it doesn't all happen in here where we're all saved it happens out there where they're not amen you can count on God resourcing you as you go to the tip of the spear and you pierce to the darkness of sin Jesus says these words he ascends into heaven the spirit comes back and they go everywhere telling everyone first only at Jerusalem and then Judea The Province and and then in Acts 8 Samaria and then in Acts 10 Gentiles and there's a shift from Jerusalem to the rest of the world from acts 10 to acts 28 there's this gradual movement away from Jerusalem The Hub and toward the ends of the Earth from Jerusalem to Rome breaking barriers that are geographical racial religious breaking through to people overcoming obstacles of persecution from the outside and hypocrisy on the inside nothing can stop the advance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it goes to the ends of the Earth that is God's plan it goes to the entire Roman Empire where Paul appeals to Augustus himself the emperor of the world and it's interesting when you read back there that the Roman Empire at its peak only reached about four percent of the entire Earth's land masses in that day four percent of the of the real world geographical world was what the Roman Empire covered now what about the other 96 much of which has been populated since then the population of the world and the times of the early church and the days of Jesus Christ is estimated to have been about 300 million people and for 1 000 years the population of the Earth changed very little it was still at about 300 million people the population of planet Earth only reached a billion in 1804 best estimate I can find our population grew to 3 billion in 1960 to 6.8 billion in 2010 and now in 2022 it is estimated the population of the world is estimated to be 8 billion people now when Jesus spoke these words about the ends of the Earth to four percent of the world populated to 300 million people Jesus knew Jesus was God in flesh he knew that in 2022 there would be eight billion people Jesus did not just die for the 300 million he died for the 8 billion people that populate our world today for God so loved the world then and God still loves the world now this gospel message this message of Salvation it wasn't just a Jewish message they had to break through that wasn't certainly a European message they were not even Europeans it's certainly not an American message it came here it didn't originate here this message is for the rich and the poor and God has chosen the poor of this world rich in faith this gospel is for the educated and it is for the ignorant it is for the Haves and the haves not have nots it is for everyone of every culture tribe Kindred tongue Nation people everyone everywhere it's for every one of the six thousand eight hundred language groups of people all over this world this gospel is for everyone it is estimated that there are 4 300 religions in the world but about 75 percent of the world's population practices one of the five more influential and religions in the world not always larges Buddhism Christianity Hinduism Islam and Judaism these five major world religions and that can be debated but I went with five instead of seven or another number Christianity about 31 percent of the people of the world call themselves Christians 2.4 billion our country may have the highest number of practicing Christians maybe one other country that I'll mention later 253 million people Brazil 185 million Mexico 118. Christians all over the world they're about 25 percent of the world's population who call themselves Muslim 15.2 percent Hindus 6.6 percent Buddhist 0.2 percent Judaism but in its influence it is vast and then there are folk religions about six percent or 429 million people of our world are are all kind of folk religions it could be African traditional religions Chinese folk religions Native American Australian Aboriginal religions and other religions around the world now this gospel though says that there is one gospel for everybody in the world our organization with which we Affiliated the United Pentecostal church has as its purpose statement the whole gospel not part of it but the whole gospel to the whole world by not the missionaries but by the whole church we give but we're not exempt from going just because we give now we should and I pray we do love everybody in the world regardless of their religious beliefs and we respect people for their sincerely held religious beliefs however having a sincerely held religious belief will not save you if you live up north and it's winter and the lake is frozen over and you sincerely believe that the lake will hold the weight of your body when you walk out on the ice it is not your sincerity that will hold you up it is the thickness of the eyes it takes sincerity and truth you should be sincere we must be sincere but you need to have your sincerity rooted in truth that will save your soul from hell it takes both to save you the reason I'm saying that is just because a person is a sincere Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist or Jew or whatever else or a Christian that hasn't come into full truth we love them we thank God for what they believe sincerely but you don't get a pass because you are sincere you go to heaven because you obey the gospel and sincerity and Truth amen there is one gospel for the whole world this message is to go to the ends of the Earth John the Apostle John wrote In First John 2 2 referring to Jesus and he is a propitiation that's a big theological word that means the atoning sacrifice it's what Calvary was he is a propitiation for our sins aren't you glad about that and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world everyone everywhere regardless of who they are or what they believe this gospel the blood of Jesus Christ can cover their sins there is one gospel for the entire world the Apostle Peter declared in Acts 4 and 12 neither is there salvation in any other he's talking about Jesus for there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved thank God that somebody's doing all they know but it's our responsibility to tell them what and something that they can know they can save them to get them out of error and heresy and false religion and humanism and to bring them out of darkness and into light so that they can know Jesus and go to heaven [Applause] for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him not them not anyone else but that the world through him might be saved now I know for many of you this is Zone news but it is still the best news a lost person ever heard you can be forgiven of every sin you've ever committed and condemnation will lift off your life when Jesus sets you free you can be delivered from any Vice that binds you there is no substance there is nothing whether it is physical psychological emotional there is nothing that can keep Jesus from making you free whom the son has made free is free indeed where the spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty your life can be restored love can replace hate and you can escape hell and enjoy the pleasures of Heaven forever and ever and ever this gospel works for everyone everywhere to the ends of the Earth no just what does that mean to the ends of the Earth that phrase appears in the Bible 46 times throughout the scripture Moses Hannah job Elijah David the psalmist Solomon other writers of Proverbs and Psalms have used this phrase to the ends of the earth Isaiah Jeremiah Micah Zechariah even the Pagan King Nebuchadnezzar used the words the phrase the ends of the Earth Isaiah in the Old Testament that silver tongued orator Prophet use this phrase a dozen times in his 66th chapter book it referred to distant Nations it talked about worldwide judgment coming to the ends of the Earth it spoke of Jewish restoration from Babylon at the ends of the Earth ultimately it speaks of God coming in flesh and his mighty saving power his far-reaching work amen Jeremiah uses this phrase eight times of Babylon restoration of Gentiles coming to the Lord Paul quotes it twice Jesus used this phrase in Acts 1 and 8. it was his commission to the gospel to go to the ends of the Earth the ends of the Earth now to us the ends of the Earth are reached when we do not have a phone signal there are no bars on your phone you can't get out and they can't get in or when you're stuck with no internet service the is of the Earth a first world crisis recently I had the opportunity to take a really long trip I made it twice before the airline said it was eight thousand four hundred and thirty four miles 15 hours and 15 minutes non-stop from Atlanta to Johannesburg South Africa you might think that's the ends of the Earth I was writing the article that was the the framework for this message as I was traveling and I finished it and I looked down at my flight tracker we were at 41 036 feet and above the Kalahari Desert when I pushed send on my Delta internet and sent the article back here now you might think the Kalahari Desert is the ends of the Earth I thought it was pretty cool that I could send an article from there to here but in the Bible the ends of the Earth can refer to geographical extremities a place that is distant remote way out there in The Boondocks we might say and Biblical times as well as now it can refer to remote places that are difficult to access back then you couldn't take a ship there you couldn't take a cart there you might have been fortunate to be able to walk there it's not just where it is it's the implications of where it is and how remote those people may be from being reached by the Gospel of Jesus Christ places where there is a lack of contact or communication nobody could get there that's the ends of the Earth it was Isaiah though that gave us hope in Isaiah 45 when he spoke to all those people who were out there somewhere remote geographically removed culturally isolated religiously when Isaiah said this is the Lord speaking to through him look unto me and be saved all the ends of the Earth for I am God and there is none else there is not another religion that can save you but there is a Jesus there is a God who came to Earth and no matter how remote no matter how removed no matter how isolated or cut off this gospel is for everyone everywhere to the ends of the Earth I was curious what what are the ends of the Earth today I read several articles but one said the most primitive people that live in the most isolated regions on our planet today live in countries or maybe morbid name several Papua New Guinea India Venezuela Peru and Paraguay India there's a group of people they're called the sentinelese they live on the North Sentinel Island and the Bay of Bengal India they're intensely reclusive they're known to respond violently to visitors to try to come to their Island they are frequently dubbed the most isolated people in the world we're calling them the sentinelese but we don't know what they call themselves no one's ever been able to find out we don't know their language because they're not talking and even the other tribes and them in tribes that are on neighboring Islands related to them they know very little about these remote people there's something like 50 to 200 of them they live hunter-gather lives they make canoes for fishing and crabbing and they hunt game with small boats with bows and arrows and Spears since the 1950s the Indian government has declared this island off limits strictly prohibits visitors from going them they don't want you to take them a disease they don't want them to give you an arrow because they have 2018. a bold American missionary traveled there he was killed soon after he landed they don't want to know they want you to go somewhere else they live at the ends of the Earth there are also places in our world today in our organization we call them access challenged Nations you could get there but you can't get there you can go there for a vacation you can go there for business but you can't go there but the purpose of evangelizing lost people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ The Gospel is trying to be shut out by the government who prohibits us from coming some organizations call these creative access Nations meaning you can't get there but you can get there if you find a creative way to get in there's a higher law there's a greater mandate than the law of Any Nation go into all the world and preach the gospel to Every Creature go to the ends of the Earth we are not exempt from taking the gospel to hard places or hard people just because it's not easy they are still lost without the Gospel of Jesus Christ and today I wanted to pause and applaud The Fearless men and women who are not afraid to go to places that we might call the ends of the Earth because the love of God for them has become the love of God in them and they're willing to walk away from everything here to go there we ought to thank the heroes of the church the missionaries that go take the gospel to an unchurched region amen they're amazing stories they're told generically at times communist China is like the ends of the Earth 1.4 billion people we're not supposed to go there but it's too late the church is already there are estimates there are 234 million Christians in China I've read everything from 36 to 2 34 and all kinds of numbers in between Christians in China communist China already outnumbered members of the Chinese Communist party but still they're only 20 percent of the 1.4 billion people they are at the ends of the Earth they're hard to reach they're not so much miles away but they are Worlds Away but today I want to help you think I'm trying to think better and do better that the ends of the Earth might not be ten thousand miles away it may be next door maybe a person that doesn't speak your language doesn't look like you seems to have a giant barrier out that says no trespassing if you try to get in here you've got an arrow of sorts waiting for you here no trespassing into my life but the gospel can still reach them and should still reach them maybe we're just not courageous enough or creative enough when Jesus met the woman at the well she had no trespassing signs everywhere but she was the key to an entire Village and then the province of Samaria and a conversation about water led to a conversation about eternal life and she said come see a man he told me all the sins I've done is not this the Christ you can't get through [Applause] I want to tell you a story that's happening in the state of Alaska is a good example of a place that is at the ends of the Earth twice the size of Texas take that Texans Alaska only has 12 numbered highways half of the public roads are not paved at all in the permafrost and fro they would they would kind of come apart so they're unpaved bordered by two oceans three C's three thousand Rivers about three million Lakes give or take a hundred thousand or so there's a lot of boats in Alaska see planes abound much of the year is frozen you can't get in there by a boat or car probably not even a a snow a ski whatever that is I can't think of the word right yeah I want to say a jet ski but that wouldn't work in the snow so you know what they do they go by air only 20 percent of Alaska is accessible by roads you can't even get to the capital city of Juneau buy a car so air transportation has become the transportation of choice but that's not cheap last time I checked airplanes cost quite a bit at times but an amazing thing happened last week at General Conference the youth Ministries division made an allocation to the state of Alaska I found out after the first service that our youth pastor brother Joel was on the youth subcommittee that addressed this issue and he's got more details but they allocated 200 000 to buy an airplane from one of our missionaries there to fly to the ends of the Earth I think we have a picture of that airplane right there that's going to get the gospel passing Iceberg over an ice flow and into a little village you can't get there easily but you can't get to the ends of the Earth if you want to [Applause] and I wanted to take a moment to thank this church for your move the mission offering this year of 280 thousand dollars part of a record 8.3 million dollars given in North America to take this gospel to the ends of the Earth that's our mission amen our church has been so amazingly generous so much so that since our last missions conference our world missions fund grew to the place that we decided we need to give some money away in an extraordinary way so about a month ago we dispersed 116 thousand dollars to Mission causes around the world I had written for information we gave money to church Planters the Inns in Vancouver the grass in Quebec we gave ten thousand dollars to Urban missions we gave money to the country of Kenya so they could build a well we gave money to Togo so they could buy property we gave money to Ukraine so they could continue their building program we gave money to Kazakhstan so they could rent a building for six months we gave money to the Solomon Islands to keep their building program going [Applause] we gave money to Vanuatu you heard about it last week so they could buy a new printer to print materials and to fix a ceiling in a main building we gave money to India so they could work on a Bible College we gave money to Cambodia to buy rice for their Bible college students for an entire year Hey Brother some their Regional director told me a general conference and in an email he said they were down to one month of rice when you gave your offering from Atlanta with us Pentecostal church I want to say thank you for making a difference by your giving you ought to thank the Lord that we can give and we do give and while I was saying all that I just thought you know brother Nate Turner we can help Estonia too so you share with Brother John Turner a project need and we're going to help you we we want to do more the Lord told Abraham I will bless you and I will make you a blessing we are not blessed to be an end user we are blessed to be a conduit for the blessings of God to help other people we have money we have means we have men and women but maybe what we lack is the courage or the creativity to close the distance politically spiritually and geographically so today I'm asking you would you obey the words of Jesus Christ and take the gospel to the ends of the Earth it is really not an option it is a command it is a commission we were saved to serve and to reach the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ