Dear Christian friends:

During the Sundays that I am gone I have prepared five sermons for you about going to tell others about Jesus: GO AND TELL. I hope that you will be able to come and hear each of these sermons as they are very important and one follows the other to give you the complete coverage of the subject.

Often we are not very eager to hear that Jesus sends us to go and tell others about Him. We like to hear: "God loves me; God takes care of me; God helps me." But we are not very eager to hear these words: "God sends me." We suspect that God's sending us means work and problems, and who needs anymore work or problems? So we need help and encouragement to go and do what our Lord Jesus tells us to do. These five sermons are meant to be encouragement and help to you in that great work.

In our text Jesus says, "I now send you." Jesus said that to whom? He sent whom? That question we will answer in our sermon today.


Jesus said these words on Easter evening. He said these words to His disciples who were gathered in a room in Jerusalem with the doors locked. God, His Father in heaven had sent Him down here to earth to suffer and die for man's sins, so they can have forgiveness and become God's friends, His people again and do right. Not hate, steal, kill, make war, get divorces and wreck homes. Jesus, God sent Him to win people back to God and to give them eternal life.

Jesus did that work. He did not fail His heavenly Father, although it cost Him very much, His life and blood. God the Father is very pleased and satisfied with His Son's work. He let Him arise from death. But God's work is not all finished yet. God needs people to go and tell the nations the Good News of Jesus' death and resurrection. That is why Jesus sent His disciples on Easter evening. He sent them to go and tell the Good News of salvation to all nations. "As My Father has sent Me, even so I now send you," Jesus says to them.

Whom did He send to go and tell? He sent His disciples. Does that mean you, too? Are you one of His disciples? You are if you have received baptism in His name. You are if you believe in Him and accept Him for your Savior. You are if you are a Christian.

Who should tell? You should tell. I should tell. Every Christian should tell. Not one of us is excused.

One day a man asked a pastor, "How many people are doing mission work in your church?" The pastor answered, "Three hundred." The man said, "I did not ask you how many members; I asked you how many missionaries?" The pastor replied, "Each one of our members is a missionary."

Is every member in our church a missionary? Does each one of us often go to tell others the Good News about Jesus?

One evening a pastor came into the classroom to begin a new adult membership class. He was very surprised to see twenty-one men and women, who wanted to learn to become members of the church. The Pastor himself had not invited them and he had never met them before. But his members had talked to them and had invited them to come. One Sunday School teacher had brought fourteen by herself.

If each one of our members will go and tell, as Jesus commands, our Church here will grow faster. I am pleased to see that some of our members are inviting others to come to church, and using their cars to bring them.

Remember, Jesus is depending on YOU. Your pastor can't do it all. He can't go for you. Jesus gives that work to each one of His disciples. Your pastor is here to encourage you and train you so that you can go and do a better job for your Savior who asks you to go. Jesus is depending on you; don't fail Him.

Miss Manning loved a missionary. Before he left for India, the missionary wrote a letter to Miss Manning asking her to marry Him; if she sent no answer he will know that she does not want to marry him.

Miss Manning loved the missionary very much and quickly sat down and wrote a letter telling him that she accepted his proposal. It was raining very, very hard, so her brother offered to take the letter to the post office.

But Miss Manning waited and waited for a letter from the missionary to tell her when to come to India to be married. But she never received any letter from him. Later she heard that he had married someone else. Twenty-five years later the Manning family moved to a new house; during the moving she found an old coat that had belonged to her brother. When she looked into the pockets, she found the letter she had written to the missionary twenty-five years ago. Her brother had forgotten to drop it in the post office.

God has given you a love-letter to the sinner near you. Is it still in your pocket?

May God give each one of us His Holy Spirit and help us to realize that Jesus is depending on us to deliver His love-letters.

Amen.