Watch/Listen
Go To All The World
Brian Mashburn
May 3, 2009
Audio Player
Go Where?
Mark's version of the Great Commission of Christ to his disciples is both striking and overwhelming if taken at face value. He records Jesus as saying, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." (Mk 16:15)
It would be compelling and challenging enough if he just said "go". He's telling his followers to initiate. Be proactive. He doesn't say "wait for an opportunity" here. He didn't instruct them to "advertise" about the movement in some impersonal way. Nor does he merely call them to "finance" or "send" someone else to do the work of Christ. He tells them, personally, to go and engage the world.
It would also be corrective and instructing enough if he just said "preach the good news". So many Christians preach so much more (which is really so much less) than this. He didn't say to preach the method of how to do church. Nor how to administrate nations. Nor how to live the moral life. He didn't say preach how the gifts of the Spirit work, or what the proper elements of a worship service are. None of these messages contain the power to transform people. Only the good news, the gospel, does that. The message of the life, death, resurrection, and then life of Jesus Christ. Preach that.
But he didn't stop there. He told us his target audience. He says to go "into all the world". And he said this the first time 2000 years ago, before the technology and communication systems available to us today. But even though today it is not unrealistic to expect that every single member of our church could be engaged in getting the good news out to another nation in the world, it is still overwhelming.
The Southwest community has this commission at the very heart of its existence. Reaching the world for Christ was the primary motivation for the merge of the Southside and Southlawn churches back in 1970. But even if this torch had not been passed down to us by our Southwest forefathers, the original commission of our Founder, Jesus Christ, should compel each us to desire to find a way to follow this exciting commission...the God's glory, our greatest joy, and the good of the world.