7 reasons to prioritize mission
If you take the time to go through the topic overview on (most?) Bible schools, you notice that the subject “mission” often lacking. In our churches mission was before a priority but now often has end up in the periphery. Sweden was for a long time a country that was known to send out a lot of missionaries, and perhaps it is precisely because of that, that we are in many ways a very blessed country. The Great Commission made the church exist. So really it is perhaps the great commission that has a church and not the church that has the great commision?
I list here seven reasons why you and I need to prioritize mission:
1. The Great Commission is a command and not a suggestion. Matthew 28: 18-20, Mark 16: 15-18
When Jesus after his resurrection speaks with his disciples, he gives them a commandment. Go out and preach the gospel! It was not exactly a proposal by His side, “if by chance, you would start with mission that would be a good thing to do”. No it was “GO OUT!”
Jesus saved the most important thing for last. Go out and preach the gospel to all creation.
2. There should be a human right to hear about Jesus.
We talk about fair trade coffee, gender equality, human rights, etc. There should also be a human right to hear the world’s best messages.
Why should some hear the Gospel twice when others can´t hear it again?
Coca Cola are in the most remote villages but not the gospel. This we need to change!
3. The message of the kingdom must be preached to all nations before the end can come. Matthew 24:14
“All the people” here means all ethical communities. Today there are approximately, 6,000 unreached people groups that dident hear the gospel. They have no churches, bibles, and people who can tell them about Jesus. The Great Commission is micromanaged to all the world’s peoples. These must be reached with the gospel before the end can come. There is therefore an eschatological (doctrine of outer most things) perspective to prioritize the Great Commission.
4. By preaching the gospel we speed His return. 2 Peter 3:12
When we actively share the Gospel with people and working with the mission we can speed up his return to Earth.
We’re talking about Jesus’ second coming, but are we active in to speed it?
We’re talking about that Jesus will return soon, while there are ca. 6000 reasons (see paragraph 3) why he can not come back yet.
We are talking about the second coming of Jesus in our churches while several billion people have not heard about the first time he was here.
5. Gained power (dynamis) to become my witnesses. Acts 1: 8
You have received the Holy Spirit for power to testify and not to feel goose bumps during special praise. The Spirit is given that we will receive power to testify first in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. We have had supernatural power and equipment to spread the Kingdom of God on this earth. Spirit was given so that we could go out and win souls.
6. Both heaven and hell exist. Matthew 7: 13-14, Luke 16: 19-31,
The world’s most famous Bible verse John 3:16 told that God loved mankind and that Jesus was sent to earth to people who believe in him may not be lost but have eternal life. Human beings can be lost or eternal life. The Bible speaks of hell. Jesus speaks of hell.
The goodness of God leads to repentance (Romans 2: 4) to let us feel all the conditions of the equation. Let us dare to give people the whole truth and not just parts of it.
7. Revelation speaks of people from all nations, tribes, countries and languages. Rev 7: 9
If we go directly to the check hindsight and we see that in John’s Revelation, people from all nations, tribes, countries and languages to be represented in the heaven. The Assembly will succeed in the mission to evangelize empires. We need to preach and to reach all peoples, tribes, countries and languages with the Gospel. The heaven should be full of these.
I have chosen seven reasons, and there are many more reasons why we should prioritize mission. For example.
Romans 10: 14, John 20:21, Luke 10: 2, 1 Genesis 12: 1-3, Revelation 5: 9, etc.
But it would have been to long blog post and you would have finished reading …. 😉
Finally, encourage someone today who is involved in the mission. Give a gift, send a text message, pray for them, give them an encouraging e-mail or perhaps call them!
I heard a wonderful wonderful quote once that goes something like this “Missionary work is too important to be handled only by missionaries.”
Let us prioritize mission!
Stay blessed!
/ Daniel
