Evangelism 2- We Go
"Fill the earth." From the beginning this is God's recorded command, reflecting his desire for an earth full of people with his image, people in right relationship with Him.
What does He want of us, as commanded by Christ before his ascension into heaven?
Go. Make disciples of all nations.
Mt 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 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,
20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Last time we realized that this started in the earliest accounts of the Bible, with Adam, Noah, and Abraham.
We see the theme and command to "go" in order to accomplish God's will woven throughout the stories that we know so well in the Bible.
Jonah is but one example, where God required him to "go" to the people of Nineveh.
Jnh 1:1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai:
2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
From the beginning, God has been sending people for his purposes. That purpose includes having people in right relationship with God, for the glory of God.
Christ was fulfilling the promises of blessing way back to Abraham. With Jesus' death for our sins, He paved the way for us to come into right relationship with God. From this rich history of God's desire for all peoples to be in right relationship with him, we now focus this command / work under the heading of evangelism. As quoted from the Lausanne Covenant by John Stott, we see the context.
"To evangelize is to spread the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures, and that as the reigning Lord he now offers the forgiveness of sins and the liberating gift of the Spirit to all who repent and believe."
If we fast forward to the end of the Bible, we can start to see the fruit of the labor of evangelism.
Rev 7:9 After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.
What a beautiful vision God shard with John, as recorded in the Bible's final book--Revelation. It will be a multitude we cannot imagine. It will include people from every nation, tribe and language, giving glory to God our Father.
So, we "go." We want to do our part in this on-going story.
How do we do it? That is where we now turn our attention.
While Christ was on earth, he provided excellent lessons for us in how to reach people.
In the next post we consider his metaphor of planting and harvesting.
Blessings,
Larry
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