Global Missions: Necessary or Not?

This article is part of a three-part series adapted from Is the Commission Still Great?

After you read this one, check out part two.

I grew up on the island of New Guinea at the junction of two rivers that fed the surrounding forests and swamps and filled them with crocodiles, cockatoos and all manner of edible creatures and plants. Like my childhood, the Bible is framed by rivers and trees. Scripture begins in Genesis with a garden, two special trees, and a river that waters the entire region. It culminates in Revelation 22 with a river “as clear as crystal” and the tree of life that brings healing to the nations. I believe that amazing picture portrays God’s global redemptive purposes.

The most famous articulation of those global intentions is found in Matthew 28:18–20, known as the Great Commission:

“Then Jesus came to [His disciples] 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.”

Today, we call that effort, which has been underway for 2,000 years, global missions.

How great is the commission?

The Great Commission is the central message of the Bible and the primary responsibility of the Church today. God’s redemptive plan for the nations surges through the Bible like a river of life.

As followers of Jesus, we have been instructed to make disciples of every people group on earth so that a truly global Church may one day worship together before the throne of God. Our mission is the most ambitious undertaking in the history of the world. It involves hundreds of millions of people and spans thousands of years.

Consider the scale of the mission.

While “make disciples of all nations” may sound simple enough, we can barely even begin to grasp what is involved in such a vast and elaborate plan. God’s purpose for His Church is not just to redeem a lot of people, but to redeem people who represent, in a way that the apostle John could recognize from a distance, every people group on earth.

People groups not only speak different languages and dialects, but they also have different worldviews. They value different things, organize ideas in different ways and express emotions differently. Cultures have different ways of organizing leadership, making decisions and viewing success. Values are passed down through thousands of years of tradition and history and literature and art, some of which retain aspects of biblical truth and some of which have been distorted by sin.

Reaching so many diverse cultures with the gospel is a dizzyingly complex task. Adding shock to astonishment, God has entrusted a significant measure of this monumental task to weak-kneed men and women like you and me. At stake are the reputation of God and the eternal destiny of hundreds of millions of souls.

We must be intentional.

Without a strategic focus on world missions, we can go on making more disciples, but it’s unlikely they will be from every language, tribe and tongue. Reaching the world takes intentionality.

A significant number of us will have to rearrange our lives to communicate the gospel to the 3.5 billion people alive today who don’t yet have access to Bibles, churches or followers of Jesus. According to one recent estimate, more than 80 percent of the unbelievers alive today do not personally know a follower of Christ.

We’re all commissioned.

The gospel is good news for the whole world, and the Great Commission is for all of us who know Christ. Is it hard to believe that you have a part to play in that great cosmic drama?

This does not mean that all of us need to get on airplanes and fly away to distant lands. Great Commission work is so vast and so complex that there are as many ways to engage as there are willing participants.

When we understand our corporate purpose as a global Church, then we are each free to pursue it wholeheartedly according to the opportunities, giftings, resources, skills, education and experiences that God graciously gives us as individuals.

We’re made for this.

Our confidence to engage in Great Commission work comes from the identity of the One who calls us and the resources He has provided. Jesus designed the Church specifically for this task. I have no doubt that this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations. In God’s time, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

In Matthew 22, Jesus tells the parable of a great wedding feast. The king has spared no expense for the magnificent gala—his son is getting married! Three times he sends out his servants with invitations, but most of them are turned down by people who are too busy to attend the festivities.

Pass on the invitation!

You and I are recipients of the invitation to the King’s wedding feast. What an incredible honor! But then we get a second blessing. We are also the privileged servants who, along with the prophets of old, distribute the King’s invitations in the streets, calling others to come and celebrate with us.

God’s great banquet hall will eventually be filled with people that most of us would not have expected to attend such an event. They will come from all over the world and celebrate the marriage of the Son in every language. It’s going to be a truly spectacular party.

Read more in Is the Commission Still Great? 8 Myths about Missions & What They Mean for the Church, by Steve Richardson.