Have you ever started anything that you did not finish? We all start something in life that we don’t finish for many different reasons; We discontinue reading a book, quit on our music lessons, or stop going to the gym because we got busy, we’ve lost interest, we got bored, it got too expensive, or sometimes, we just stop for no particular reason. But there are things that have major consequences if we quit, such as our marriages, our contractual obligations, and unresolved conflicts that can result to casualties as far as our relationships go, if we give up.
The Great Commission is an unfinished business. God has given every believer, every Christian, and every church, to go to every nation and preach the gospel so that every person in the world will have the opportunity to respond to it.
“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’ (Matthew 28:18-20)”
When we stop making disciples of all nations, even when we have reached our families and friends, we still have not completed the mandate of God. The unfinished business of world missions has serious, eternal consequences.
3 out of 10 people do not recognize the name of Jesus, and everyday, 66,000 people die into a Christ-less eternity. The Great Commission is about people. People that Jesus paid the same price he paid for with us: His suffering on the cross. How can they respond if we don’t tell them about him?
Jackie, one of the most influential Every Nation pastors in China, had to open his dictionary to know the meaning of the words God and Jesus when he heard the gospel for the first time in an accidental meeting with a Christian missionary. It only takes 1 Jackie to reach families, to transform a community, to impact a generation, and to see changed lives. One life can make a difference in the world.
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)”
Jesus will come back when the Great Commission has been fulfilled.
A group of Filipino missionaries in Afghanistan who have been giving medical assistance to Talibans, and laying their hands on them, praying for them in the name of Jesus, have been announced targets for killing by the village Imam. They have put their trust in the promise of Jesus that he will be with them to the very end of the age. One of them was a flower arranger who has become one of the most radical missionaries to the muslims, having learned the afghan language and has been preaching the gospel to the people in their language. These people who go on missions are ORDINARY PEOPLE who are WILLING and AVAILABLE.
There are 3 ways to get involved in the Great Commission:
Pray.
“And as he taught them, he said, ‘Is it not written: My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations?’” (Mark 11:17a).
Pray for open doors. Major things can happen through prayer.
Give.
Give to send out and support missionaries to preach the gospel all nations.
Go.
Go out in obedience to the Great Commission. No race, language, or culture raise an obstacle for every person to hear the gospel if we just OBEY
A biblical church is a global church. We must ultimately be in the same vision that God has for all nations.
Princeton University, originally established in 1746 to train Presbyterian ministers and was the finest school for evangelists, had a dictum: If you want to follow Jesus Christ, you must follow him to the ends of the earth, for that is where he is going.
God has already gone ahead and has prepared the hearts of people. We just need to go and help make disciples of all nations.
“After this, I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb” Revelations 7:9a.**
1 comment:
Powerful post here. I think too many Christians that I know are lazy and complacent and self-centered. They see no real need to sacrificially give of their lives so that others might know Christ. This is the command of our Lord, however. He gave His life for the glory of God and for our good and we are to have the same attitude as Jesus, regarding others as more important than ourselves. I write a lot about reforming the bad habits of the church here.Thanks for this important post.
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