GO YE INTO ALL THE WORLD, AND PREACH THE GOSPEL

This is the foundational command of the New Testament and in some way each of the gospels ends with it. The Acts of the Apostles is filled with the demonstration of the fulfilment of this command. The church is made up of those who have heard and believed the gospel and have identified themselves with the Lord Jesus who is the subject of the gospel. Any local church without a gospel outreach is doomed to die. As someone has quipped, ‘evangelize or fossilize’. The command has three aspects as it is recorded in our text.

The first aspect is ‘go ye into all the world’. The journey begins with the area around home. It includes family, friends, and neighbours and then branches out to our town, country and, finally, the uttermost parts of the world. Without a healthy gospel effort at home, foreign missions will decline or die a natural death.

The second aspect of the command is ‘preach the gospel’. In order to preach the gospel one has to know the gospel. This is one reason for consistently preaching the gospel in the local church. Do our young people know the basic elements of the gospel? So much of what is passed off as the gospel today isn’t the gospel at all. Which is why each generation must be taught the elements of the gospel. Then, we must demonstrate and teach how to preach the gospel.

The third aspect of the command is ‘to every creature’. Paul wrote that it is the will of God our Saviour that all men should ‘be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth’, 1 Tim. 2. 3-4. Peter wrote that the Lord is ‘not willing and any should perish, but that all should come to repentance’, 2 Peter 3. 9. There are those in our neighbourhoods, those in prisons, those in nursing homes, those who have different languages and cultures near us that need to hear the gospel. We need to reach out to all the people with this most glorious message.

Ask the Lord today to give you the opportunity to reach someone with the gospel and thus become part of the vast army of disciples that seek to fulfill this most glorious command.