Jesus gave each of us a mission at the end of the Gospel of Matthew. He said to His disciples "God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age."
What we make of this is the stuff of personal commitment. I do not for one minute think that the Master meant for every one of us to go off to some foreign place to preach the Good News but I do think that He means for each of us to be involved in spreading the kingdom.
For this to happen each of us need to find from Jesus what He has for them to do. Not everyone is able to be a missionary, but everyone should be involved in Mission. For missionaries to be effective there needs to be entire networks that support them. People are needed to support the field worker in prayer, people are needed to fund the work of the missionary and more still are needed to provide technical and physical support.
But there is more to this call of Jesus than sending and supporting people in foreign lands. I remember many years ago a Tongan friend of mine saying that soon they would be sending missionaries from Tonga to Australia. I am not sure whether he was speaking tongue in cheek or whether he was serious but I doubt if the Mandate to Mission meant that either.
“Mission” has an equivalent term “Evangelism”. Evangelism is the spreading of the Good News. Despite the title that is ascribed to certain public speakers evangelism is the task of each of us right where we are. We are meant to be living the Good News and the love of God to the people in our neighbourhood and our workplace.
Evangelism is the living breathing pulse of the People of God. As we follow the Master in our daily life we show out the love of God as we are true to His words and life. There is an old saying “God doesn’t have grandchildren” and it is the basis of the need for evangelism. In the New Testament there are stories about entire households coming to faith in Jesus, I believe that each and every member of those families believed the message rather than the lead person saying “I believe and my family does too”.
This is why evangelism is important. We need to live through Jesus life to show Him to our family as well as our neighbours. If we fail to live up to the call of Jesus we fail our friends and neighbours who look at us and our lives as Christians because the life they see does not impress them to believe.
Jesus love is the most significant element in any decision to follow Him. People now see Jesus love through the lives of their family and friends as much as any other thing. Faith in Jesus must be demonstrated to others by changed lives if it is to be shown as relevant in our life before it will become relevant in theirs.
This is the challenge that Jesus places in front of all of us. We are meant to be missionaries taking the message of Matthew 28 to wherever, the passage also includes at home as well as the ends of the earth.
Enable us Lord.
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