Chapter 12
Mount Of Commission
We have now come to the Mount of Commission, or the blessed Son of God sending out the disciples from the top of one of the mountains of Galilee. We read in St. Matt. 28:19, 20: “Go ye 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, and lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world.” Here the blessed Son of God gave the greatest commission that was ever given to a set of men in this world. Just listen to the commission: “Go ye therefore and teach all nations,” and then what? “Baptizing them in the name of the Father and in the name of the Son and in the name of the Holy Ghost.” And then He puts in another clause and says, “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you,” and then listen, “Lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world.”
The reader will notice that the disciples got their commission from the top of a mountain, and not the bottom of the valley, or even from the banks of a beautiful spring branch. How wonderful it seems to me to think that the blessed Christ went to the top of a mountain to do many of His wonderful works. We see Him on the mountain when He is undergoing his awful temptation; we see Him on the mountain when He preached that sermon that every man and woman and child loves to read; and we see Him on the mountain when he makes His choice and calls His twelve Apostles; and we see Him on the mount when He was glorified and “his face did shine as the sun and his raiment was as white as the light;” and He went on the mountain to be crucified; and now we see Him on the mountain when He is giving His disciples the greatest commission that a set of men ever received in this world.
Oh, the wonderful things that God has told His children on mountains. What scenes have taken place around and near by and on the top of the mountains of the earth. How the Son of God loved to hang around the mountains. His preaching and His praying was mostly done on the mountains of Judea.
After the parting words of the Master, the disciples went down from the top of that mountain to do a work that they never would have done without the great commission from the Master on the mount of victory and glory and honor and power and love, for all this hung over the mountain while the Christ was giving these men this wonderful commission. There was so much included. It was to change the whole world. The lives and customs and work of men were to be changed by the commission to the Galilean fishers who had traveled with the blessed Son of God for three years. Not only did this great commission reach out and affect the whole world, but it meant that the men who received this wonderful commission were to preach a new doctrine to the world; and not only that, but they were to seal their doctrine by their blood. Their commission meant not only to preach, but to perish by the sword; not only dig for their bread, but die for their cause; and as far as we know not one of them escaped. Their lives were taken, their heads were severed from their bodies, but they stood so true that today the people of the earth are naming their children for them and naming their churches for them.
But back behind all is the Mount of Crucifixion, and the Mount of Commission. On one of these mountains the disciples saw their Lord and Master die; and on the other mountain they heard the same Master say: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, and he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.” Their commission stayed with them until the day of their death. I suppose that if the Lord ever calls a
man to preach, that he will never lose his commission to preach the message of the Lord. I have seen men that I am sure had been called to preach the gospel, and had backslidden, and I verily believe that while they were in their backslidden state the call to preach was still with them and they felt it as much as ever. While they were down in the life of sin, while the devil was beating and cuffing them they could hear the voice of the Master calling them to the field of labor, and at times their hearts would burn within them and they would feel like going back to the work again. I have heard men preach while they themselves were down, and the Lord would bless the message to my own soul. He would honor His Word and make it a blessing to multitudes of people. That is the reason that men can have revivals after they have backslidden. They still have the commission from the Master, “Go ye.”