It's my privilege, once again, to be able to share God's Word with you. I'd like you to turn in your Bibles to Matthew 28, and I'd like to focus on one aspect. I know it's a very familiar text, and it's something that you expect to hear during a missions conference, and I think that's appropriate. But we're going to talk about authority and missions. And I'd like to focus on sort of a follow up to what we talked about in the Sunday school hour. If you were here, we talked about strategy and missions and how we have 83 percent of the world in a place where you can't go to that place with missionary written on your visa. And that couldn't have been illustrated better by the interview that took place with the Cassis. because they're in a restricted access country where you can't have missionary on your visa. And that's quite a prayer request to be asking to pray that they'll be able to receive the status of a religious leader. So that's something we really need to bring before before the Lord. But this is really a situation that we have not faced before in our in our world. The world that we sort of inherited was the era of colonial missions where so many European countries controlled the governments of so many parts of the world. So let me illustrate this starting with, ironically, Indonesia. And Indonesia was controlled by the Dutch. until 1945. There are 245 million people and it is the largest Muslim country in the world today. But there was a time when we had access to Indonesia as missionaries and we were welcome there and were able to do work there. But that time has changed. This is a huge place, as you heard, 722 different languages are spoken and all representing different cultures. So you can imagine that it's a very complicated, multifaceted place. There are over 17,000 islands in Indonesia and There is only a 2.8 percent evangelical population. That's largely it's that high only because the southern part that's called Erie and Jaya has a larger percent percentage of believers. But what the castes are doing there is purely pioneer work. So once again, Here's a country that we used to have access to and now we no longer have a traditional access to this place and it is one of the neediest places on the planet. And then we look at Malaysia. which is a neighboring country. And this country was controlled by the Portuguese up until 1942. And then later on, the Dutch and then the British controlled this particular country. But now it's pretty much self-governed. And in Malaysia, there are 86 unreached people groups. And an unreached people group would be a group that's defined as not really having any gospel witness in it of significance. So the percentage would be extremely low. So it needs to be reached by the Lord and by God's people. And then Algeria moving to North Africa. was controlled by the French until 1948. So Europeans and Americans had access to this country, could share the gospel there. But now Algeria is one of the most difficult countries in the world to get into and to be able to reach these 37 million people with only a 1.4% evangelical population. And then a neighboring country in North Africa, is Libya, which has been a pretty crazy place in history, controlled by the Italians until World War II. And then that was lost at that point. And so they have independence. There are 30 unreached people groups in Libya, and only 0.3 percent of the population is evangelical. And most of these countries that I've given to you, I know no missionaries from our churches that are there. I have never heard of one single missionary going to Libya. I have not heard of one single missionary from our churches, from our 35 or so mission boards that circulate in our circles that have gone to Algeria. So we have to think about this. And what I'd like to do this morning in the time we have remaining is to present a case for the fact that we have authority from God. We have a mandate from God to go to these places, even though their access may be somewhat restricted. So can I read to you Matthew 28. verses 20, 18 through 20. The Word of God says, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. And the word there, power, has the idea of authority or perhaps in some context, jurisdiction. All authority. is given unto me in heaven and on earth. And the next thing that he says is an imperative. Go. So in some way, authority is connected to geography. So we have all authority to be able to go wherever God would have us to go. We are to 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 then he says, and lo, I am with you all the way, even unto the end of the world. So it's so fascinating that we have these mandates, this overarching command of the Lord to go to the entire world and teach the gospel and disciple people, plant churches. And we have God's promise of His presence, His omnipresence. And we also have God's promise of authority that He places behind His command. So here's my deal. Since the authority of Jesus extends to every part of the universe, both physical and spiritual, and since the Great Commission is based on the exercise of that authority, the believer need not hesitate in reaching any people group for Christ. We can go to some of the most difficult places in the world today because we have the authority of Jesus Christ backing up that decision. So two things I like to do in this message today. I like to tie together tightly. One is what is authority? And then how does that relate to missions for you and I today as local church people? So we'll start off with the nature of authority in Matthew, because I think that what we read about regarding authority in Matthew 28 is informed by our understanding that Matthew develops throughout his gospel. Matthew's gospel is the presentation of the Messianic King. We start off with a genealogy which is placed there to prove that Jesus is in the Davidic line. He is the messianic king that Israel should accept and repent of their sins. And then we see all the way through the book of Matthew, Jesus presented as this king. And in fact, as we move through this, we see that He is the King and we are His representatives. In Matthew 7, verse 29, we have this text where Jesus was teaching on the mount and gave a message that was just such a contrast to what the people had heard the scribes teach and the Pharisees teach. And people commented that we've never heard anything like this because he teaches like one who has authority and not as the scribes. And in the previous verse, they say that they were amazed at his words. So the point here is the content of his message. The things that he said were transformational. The words of the Pharisees and the scribes were shallow and they couldn't change anybody's life. But when Jesus spoke those words and people listened and responded to those words, they were transforming. And I think about the fact that we have a transformative, life-changing, powerful message today just as Jesus' message was that way in first century Palestine. So it's the content that is the authority and not the style of the speaking. And then we move along to chapter eight where we see a centurion soldier. So if you're following along in that throughout Matthew, you'll see that here's a man who's got a servant who's paralyzed. And he hears about Jesus and he perhaps sees some miracles that Jesus does and he believes in Jesus. And so he approaches Jesus through some messengers and basically says, I believe that you can heal my servant. And so Jesus heads for his place and he intercepts him and says, you don't even need to come here. Because I know that if you speak the word, it'll happen. Because I'm a man who is accustomed to serving under authority, and I have people under me, and I know when I say something, it happens. And Jesus said to him, wow, I've never seen this kind of faith. Because Jesus has authority. Now, not everyone recognized that. So the authority of Jesus is not always seen or recognized by people. And that's an important point for a person who goes to Indonesia to serve God, because it's not always recognized why they're there. And sometimes there are those who oppose those things. And then we come to chapter 21, where we see the religious leaders questioning his authority. And my point here is that the authority of Jesus is not recognized by the world. We can expect that it will not be acceptable. And then, of course, the big question of Matthew 27. I wish we had time to park on each of these parts of Matthew 27, which record the crucifixion of our Lord. Because in four different episodes of his crucifixion, it talks about his being a king. And in most of those texts, he's being challenged and mocked that he is the king of the Jews. And so once again, it's all having to do with his authority. We come to Matthew 28. And this chapter answers the question that's posed in the rest of the book. And it's really the climax of the book, because now we have the resurrected Jesus Christ validated. He conquered sin through his resurrection. And now he has one final time to get with his disciples to talk to them about what he wants them to do from this point forward. He had already told them that when he was going to resurrect, that they should meet him in Galilee. Galilee was the starting point. That was the place where they encountered the Lord for the first time. That was the place where they went up into the mount, where he called them to be his disciples. And so they were to meet on that mountain again because Jesus had one more thing to tell them. And then he was going to leave them physically. And this was to be a challenge to them. This was to be a comfort to them. And so we come to the end of chapter 28 and we see Jesus moving closer to them. and saying something that only God could say. He says, I have all authority. He's claiming omnipotence here. And as I said, he claims omniscience or omnipresence at the end of this commission. This is the full authority of the universe. No one gets this authority But God, and no one delegates this authority but God. And this is the authority that you and I have as believers to go wherever we need to go in the universe to share Jesus Christ. And sometimes I think about what is Jesus doing right now? You know, he's interceding before the Father for you and I. But he's also calling out his witnesses and he's sending them around the world, empowering them, giving them the means to take his glorious gospel and to conquer evil through his truth and to set captives free. Now, this is the Skywalker Ranch. That's pretty random, isn't it? Our son, worked at the Skywalker Ranch doing video animation for George Lucas. He did that for almost two years. And so we paid a visit to him in California. And he said, I'll give you a tour of the Skywalker Ranch. We thought, OK, that's good. The video animation that Ryan was working on was top secret. Like more so than the CIA. I'm serious. We still to this day do not know what he was working on. He had to meet with lawyers for a half a day to sign his life away. That he would never ever share what he was working on. So we got a tour of the Skywalker Ranch. And we pulled into this area that's gated, that's got like guards, like armed guards. And we had to we had to show ID. Then they had to make special calls. And this had to all be prearranged because only blood relatives get the tour. And they've actually turned, they turned Ronald Reagan away. He wanted a tour. They said, no, you shall not have a tour. We got a tour because we had the authority to get the tour. It was cool. I got to see some lightsabers and whatnot. I love jets, fighter jets. I absolutely would die to be able to get a tour of an F-35, the most advanced killing machine on the planet. I would love to be able to sit in the cockpit of an F-35. You think that's ever going to happen? Nope. I think I'll never get close to one of those. I have no authority to be able to go there. I have nothing to show them that would warrant me being able to see an F-35. When we talk about missions, the message we have is authoritative. The authority is not overt. It's not open to all people. Unbelievers do not understand it. And it is challenged by the world. And that authority that we have is sufficient to the task to get the job done. What does this mean in relationship to missions? As I've said, we have authority to go wherever God would send us. So the 83 percent that I've been talking about, we can go there. What about closed countries where you can't get a visa? We can go there. There are ways to go there. The largest Muslim country in the world. I got on a plane and I went there. And this is the largest unreached country in the world. And so I went to the airport, and I wondered what was going to happen. And I went to get my visa. I looked up. It said $20. I gave them a $20 bill. They stamped my visa for 90 days. I was like, wow, that's easier than going to Canada. You know, time there. And I've been back there many, many times. There are ways to get in to places like that. And we have authority to do that. Now, there's some places that are really tough, like North Korea. But I guarantee you, there are Chinese missionaries who have gone into North Korea. We're sharing the gospel today in the most persecuting country in the world. 3,322 unreached Muslim groups in the world. And we have total authority to go to every single one of them. But we have not formed a strategy for reaching Islam because we are afraid of them. We fear burqas, mosques, daily prayers, and especially suicide bombers. And I realize there are real fears there, but God has commanded us to go. And I thank the Lord that he's raising up people to go to many of these places because the need is so great. There are 110 people groups with three zeros. I mentioned this morning in Sunday school. This means zero Christians Zero scriptures and zero missionaries. And someone needs to find out one of these groups and target that group and pray for that group and ask God to raise up someone to go to reach these people. But I find very few people talking about these three zero groups. This is a listing of some of those countries where these three zeros exist. Suffering. is part of missions. Just because we have authority doesn't mean that we won't suffer. Jesus said, if they persecuted Me, they will persecute you. Because they don't recognize the authority of Jesus Christ. So, if they throw us in jail, does Jesus have no authority there? That doesn't annul His authority. If they kick us out of the country, If we lose all of our possessions, does Jesus have no authority there? If we're tortured or killed, has Jesus stopped having authority there? We experienced this, my wife and I, as parents. Our son went on a mission trip to a Muslim country that persecutes believers. There are less than a thousand believers in this country, in the entire country. And he was there for a good bit of the summer. And when the team came back, he decided to stay on for several more weeks there were some requests that Muslims had to receive Bibles and Jesus films. And so, he and a Muslim convert loaded their backpacks with Arabic Bibles on MP3s and Jesus films. They headed out on a bus and on their first stop in a city, they were to have an appointment to meet with a man and to be able to share these things with them. A man requested on the Internet, on a website, to be able to receive these informations. So they found the cafe where they were to meet and the man actually worked at that cafe. It was a younger man. And so they met him. They had coffee. There were some friends there. They were introduced to the seven of his friends. And so my son Peter began to share the Gospel with these eight young men. But the guy said, you know, I can't take the time right now. I'm working. Could you come back at 9 o'clock tonight? I'd love to talk to you more. So they went around and shopped for souvenirs and so forth. They met back at the cafe at nine o'clock that night, but it was a setup. There was a plainclothes policeman there and Peter was arrested and the young Muslim man with him. They were hauled into the police station and all night long they were interrogated. They were slapped. They were they shouted at them. There were there were many men there. They separated them. They tried to break them down. They wouldn't let them. They wouldn't let them sleep. And Peter was so encouraged. He was scared out of his wits, but he was so encouraged because he heard his friend over there singing at the top of his lungs in Arabic, I've decided to follow Jesus. And here's a brand new believer to the faith. And Peter was just praying his heart out. Didn't know what to do. Didn't want to compromise the situation. And they were brutal. But finally, About 12 hours later, they released him and wouldn't give him his passport back. Finally, he had to go back and they finally did give that back to him. So I got a call. I was in the airport in Green Bay, Wisconsin, heading over to China, and I was literally going through the line. I was in the line. to get on the plane to go to China for the next four weeks. And I got the call from Morocco from his friend and he told me what had happened. And my first words was, is he okay? And then I said, praise the Lord that God gave him the opportunity to suffer in this way. It was a very difficult time. from there. I had the debate, how do I tell my wife about this? So at my next stop, I called her and I told her what was going on. And then we had multiple calls as Peter went through this dark time in his life about, if God's calling me to do this, will I ever have a normal life? And God helped him through that very difficult, difficult time. But it was the best thing that ever happened to him apart from the salvation. Completely transformed his thinking. And the Lord is continuing to use that in his life now as he plans to take the next step for the Lord in wherever God would send him. We are commanded to go. And in this text, Jesus says, I have all authority And I give that to you to back up my call to all nations, teaching them to observe all things. And I will be with you always. What more could we ask? God has given us the authority to do whatever he would have us to do. Father, thank you that we have the the command that you've given to us and the means to fulfill it. Help us to be willing to go ourselves, to send our sons and daughters to pursue the fulfillment of the Great Commission in this world. Thank you, God, for the peace that we have in Jesus Christ as we respond. In Jesus' name, Amen.