Two thousand years ago, the victorious, risen Savior, Jesus Christ, gathered together his rag-tag, under-qualified, underdog group of followers, and passed the torch of making disciples of all nations. Christ was calling his disciples to be part of realizing his vision of an uncountable horde of witnesses from every tribe, tongue, and nation worshipping before the throne. The end goal of this call, O how glorious; the task, O so great!
In the book of Acts, we see this on display in the Holy Spirit-empowered advance of God’s kingdom towards the frontier, where Christ had not yet been named, through a church full of ordinary believers in Jesus. Historically speaking, the missionary task force from the early church until the present day has been made up of ordinary, unknown Christians. Justo Gonzáles writes, “In truth, most missionary work was not carried out by the apostles, but rather by the countless and nameless Christians who for different reasons—persecution, business, or missionary calling—traveled from place to place taking the news of the gospel with them.”
Throughout the narrative of Acts, we see the persecutor, Saul, become the frontier-missionary preacher, Paul (Acts 9:1-22). We see small churches set apart and send out missionaries to the task that the Holy Spirit has called them to (Acts 13:1-3). We see leaders from the mission-field (Timothy, Titus, Epaphras, Luke), discipled, trained, and mobilized for the task (Acts 13-19). We see mention of ordinary, anonymous Christians preaching the gospel far into the frontier of mighty Rome (Acts 18:2). We see bi-vocational missionaries, Priscilla and and Aquila, leveraging their business for the task. We see the poverty-stricken church in Philippi giving sacrificially, even begging earnestly to be a part of the task! (Acts 18:5) We see the young, passionate, still un-discipled Apollos receive training and become a key figure in the outward expansion. And through many more nameless individuals, we see the gospel impact whole regions (Acts 19:10).
All of these, the famous and infamous, known and unknown, educated and uneducated, shared a common burden to get the gospel to the ends of the earth where Jesus had not been named. Though not perfect, the whole church was ablaze for the cause of missions.
Is the fire still lit? Two millennia later, the end goal is just as glorious, and the task still just as daunting. There still exist five billion people who do not know Jesus. Even more shocking, there are three billion people that have little to no reasonable access to the gospel and are therefore drifting off to a Christ-less eternity.
Has the blazing house fire of missions gone out? Not likely. But have we relegated it to the fire place? Is it only reserved for professionals, a special class of Christians—the ones with the right intellect, the right family background, the right schooling, or a specific demeanor? Has it become like a sporting event (remember those?)—with thousands in the stands passionately cheering on a few on the field? The early church surely knew, as Tony Merida puts it, “It takes the whole church to get the gospel to the whole world.”
What would it take for the greater church to reclaim this understanding? In short—knowledge. Namely, knowledge of two things:
Knowledge of the gospel of Jesus.
Through the Bible, we know that because of our sin before a holy God we are in a very real danger of perishing. In fact, we are under a curse—already standing condemned before God. In our nature, our whole being opposes God, and therefore lives for things that hurt ourselves and others. We know that without any help, we will remain eternally separated from Christ.
But we who are Christians know. We know that in the gospel the curse is undone in the work of Jesus. We know that his life of obedience alone pleases God and his sacrifice alone is acceptable before God. We know that Jesus is the only balm that can cool the suffering of this broken world, in this life and in the next. And we know that because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, all—regardless of background, race, or nationality—can have eternal life. By his blood he “purchased people for God from every tribe, tongue and nation” (Revelation 5:9). We know this! A church that knows becomes a church that goes. This is because we are burdened by the knowledge of something else.
The knowledge that there are many without even an opportunity to hear the gospel!
As Christians, hearing the number “3.1 billion” (people without even access to the gospel) should shake us to the core and rocket our lives in a new direction. If we are to cool the suffering of the unreached world, it will take a concerted effort of the whole church—ordinary Christians saved by an extraordinary God, with various perspectives, professions, and prerogatives, but with one overwhelming passion—to see Jesus glorified by many at the ends of the earth.
I am reminded of the story of William Borden [1887-1913]. Being from a wealthy family, he was given a global trip as a graduation gift. At the age of 17, he sailed around the world observing the state of it. He went to Japan, China, and India. There he saw for the first time the “atrocities” of Buddhism in China and Japan, and of Hinduism in India, calling them the “vilest thing imaginable…” Armed with the knowledge of our great salvation, and knowing that these poor people were needlessly suffering for want of this knowledge, he wrote to his parents, saying, “I realize things as I never did before. … When I look ahead a few years it seems as though the only thing to do is to prepare for the foreign [mission] field.”
With the knowledge of these two things, going or preparing to go become the the “only thing” that makes sense. In a church ablaze, not going becomes the stranger option. As you survey the current extent of lostness and the lack of access to the gospel in half of the world, how is God calling you to prepare?
How is God calling you to go?
Are you a business person? Would you, like Priscilla and Aquilla, use that business to reach the nations? As it was in the early church, this is the norm today in missions— business-people, teachers, doctors, nurses, software developers, engineers, consultants, carpenters, counselors, athletic trainers, pharmacists, mothers—doing any of these occupations, but doing them in an unreached context. How might you leverage your profession and giftings for the sake of Jesus’ fame to the ends of the earth?
Are you a seminary student? One of the most haunting statistics I’ve ever heard is that 95% of seminary graduates will choose to serve among the 5% of the world’s most reached population. There is a global imbalance here. In the West, theological education and resources flow in abundance, but in much of the world there is a famine of even basic theological resources for training church leaders. Many in the global church are like the young Apollos, awaiting the blessing of knowing “the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:24-26). But those who know, go!
How might you leverage your training and your future for the cause of God’s mission to the ends of the earth?
As you consider what your part might be, the question is not if, but how will you prepare. Not if, but how will you go? Bi-vo, Co-vo, No-vo, just go! Short-term or long-term, mid-term or full-term, prepare to go!
As we see in Acts and in the early church, it takes the the whole church to reach the whole world. As it was then, God’s call for ordinary Christians to be a part of bringing the gospel to the frontier is still ablaze. Will you be a part of the countless and nameless in this generation who will carry the torch?
Ian Mac is currently a pastor in Aurora, Colorado, and the Missionary Mobilizer for a family of churches. He and his wife have been involved in mobilization for cross-cultural ministry for 12 years, as well as having lived in a Muslim-majority country for three years. As soon as possible, Ian and his wife and their three kids hope to return to that country for the long-term to be a small part of making Jesus famous to the ends of the earth.