Go Into All The World

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

Mark 16:15-16

It’s 3,000,000,000 and more—it is huge. That’s nine zeros plus digits. We can’t even think about that many people in one location. Two-thousand people in a church is huge, but three billion is more than enormous. It’s Massive.

Sitting Around

That number represents how many have not heard the gospel today. What have we done to bring this number down? Not much. What have we done to share the gospel? Not much. What have we done to save our friends, neighbors, and co-workers from eternal punishment in hell? Not much. In fact, we would daresay that we all have not done much in the mission that we have been commanded to accomplish. In fact, not much might be an understatement in describing our efforts. It seems that we have decided to sit in our own churches, perhaps give money to missions, and feel that we are doing our part in the mission of sharing the gospel around the world. Some may believe that they have not been called to missions or evangelism—that’s for others. Yet how can we be so blind? How can we believe we have been “called” to apathy, or “called” to not share the gospel, or “called” to sit at home while we pray God doesn’t send us into the mission field?

What Are We Doing

Why are we not all praying as believers that God would send us out into all the earth? Why do we not understand the command—not “call”—that Jesus Christ has given us? It is a call to “go into all the world” and to share the gospel and “make disciples”? What have we missed? How can we sit satisfied in our church pew while over 3 billion people have yet to hear the gospel? There are those here in the United States who have not heard the gospel—what are we doing? We need to start sharing the gospel to the lost in the world around us, right where we are.

Grasp the Gospel

Sadly, this number of 3 billion is not overwhelming to us. The mission does not seem urgent. Three billion lost souls does not seem serious in our comfortable state. What is wrong with us? Why is it that the church here in the United States is not exploding as the church in China is? Perhaps it is simply this: we have decided that we no longer need to hear the gospel each and every day. Just think of the early Christians. A small group— smaller than any megachurch—they changed their world not through television, or radio, or the internet. I’m not saying those are bad in any way, but if we just think—they changed the world because they went. They were commanded to go and go they did. They transformed their Judea, their Jerusalem, their Samaria, their world. We can do the same by starting here in the hardest region on earth by sharing with those who we will see on a daily basis. We need to have a passion for seeking and saving the lost. It starts with being a student of God’s Word and grasping the truths which are found on the pages as we read them and apply it to our own lives. Then going out—as we are called to—preaching the gospel to others and around the world.

WORSHIP—the Lord

DISCIPLE—the saved

SERVE—others

REACH—the