Go Tell It on the Mountain

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” -Matthew 28:19-20

Through the Great Commission in Matthew 28, Jesus commands believers to spread the gospel message to the world.  No believer is exempt from this call, but our responses may look different than the person next to us.  In fact, our response may change throughout different seasons of our lives.  There will be times in our lives when God calls us to go, whether it is a short-term mission trip or many years in an area that is unreached with the gospel.   In other seasons of our lives, God’s calling may be for us to send others to go.  However, we are never called to sit back, confident that God has not called us to be a missionary, and we are, therefore, exempt from Jesus’s command in Matthew 28.  

The main question we should ask ourselves is “How are we responding to the Great Commission?”  John Piper has said that we have three choices in world missions: “to be a joyful, sacrificial goer, be a joyful, sacrificial sender, or be disobedient.” The answer to the call to go make disciples can only be three things; to “go, send, or disobey.”  

I can honestly say that our family has been in all three scenarios.  There have been times in our lives when we have been faithful senders.  We have weekly prayed for our missionary friends, encouraged them, and supported them financially.  We have felt the joy of truly getting to be a part of what God is doing around the world through being senders.  

There have also been times in our lives when we have been distracted by busyness, our own growing family, or the pursuits of this world and have chosen to sit back and ignore God’s call.  We’ve been guilty of taking a back seat at church; just showing up, and little else.  We were pretty sure in these moments that our lives were too busy to give any of our leftovers to the church.  Someone else was going, someone else was sending, and we were sure, someone else was making disciples.  We were living in disobedience to God’s call on our lives.  During these seasons, however, God has always gotten our attention.  He has drawn our eyes back to him and off of this world.  He has never stopped pursuing us.

Then there are those times when we have answered the call to “go.”  These have been the most exciting times in our lives. These seasons often require us to step out in faith and trust God’s leading, completely dependent on Him, even though it seems crazy to the world.  It is in our “going” that our faith is strengthened and our view of God broadened.

Consider with me:  In what ways, in this season of our lives, can we respond to The Great Commission?  How can we faithfully send others? Are there missionaries that we can support financially? Can we commit to praying for certain missionaries or unreached people groups each week? Is God opening a door for us to go on a short-term mission trip? Is this a season of our lives where we can commit for a longer time?  Are we being disobedient?

It’s my prayer that God would open our eyes to ways that we can be a part of His great story in reaching the world with the Good News of Jesus.  

Praying for you!

Andrea Shustella