I have a song I am going to request that you look up. But, before I make that request, I want you to meditate on The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). For centuries, the prevailing notion when it came to The Great Commission was that the apostles and the early church had fulfilled the mandate and it thus no longer applied. Christians didn’t sense a need to obey the Great Commission because they thought it had already been obeyed in full. After all, Jesus commanded the Eleven to reach the known world with the gospel and they did. Case closed — right? Wrong!
Missionary William Carey, father of what’s known as the modern-day missions movement, wrote a dissertation in the 16th century entitled An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen that restored the idea that the Great Commission is for Christians of every age to obey and fulfill. Rather than getting into the semantics of The Great Commission (the main verb, subordinate participles, different translations, or parsing the Greek), let me just say the main point of the verse is for Christ-followers to be Making Disciples. While there are some who want to argue whether the “GO” in the Great Commission means to intentionally go or means “as you are going,” I prefer to ask, “How good is our going?”
When it comes to missions, part of our going includes giving. However, the statistics on going and giving seem underwhelming to say the least. “Americans have recently spent more money buying Halloween costumes for their pets than the amount given to reach the unreached.” Perhaps, just perhaps, we are not going and giving as much as we think we are. Due to our unwillingness to go, perhaps God has another plan. Don’t get me wrong — when it comes to going, God has no Plan B. The Church is God’s plan to reach the known world. There is no other plan. But if the American Church won’t go to the nations as much as God has called us to, perhaps God is in his sovereignty is allowing the nations to come to us. The question then becomes, will we “GO” to those in our own nation.
Really, we have two choices. We can sit and bemoan the fact that illegal immigrants are crossing our borders by the droves everyday. Or we can get inspired to do what Jesus has called us to do and go reach them for Christ. Maybe you need to take time to go and learn a new language. What if we were discipling in droves rather than complaining in droves? We have not just been unfaithful to obey the Great Commission. We’ve also been unfaithful to leading, planting, and building multi-ethnic churches. If you’ll do a serious study of the early churches in the Epistles, you won’t find a homogenous church. But what you will find is tons and tons of churches made up of Jewish and Gentile believers who have been brought together by the blood of the Lamb. Only Jesus can heal our nation’s wounds. Only Jesus can bring the races together. Only Jesus can inspire us to GO or now GO to those who are coming!
Look up and listen to Neil Diamond’s song They coming to America and get inspired. Immigrants from “all over the world are coming to America” and they “want to be free.” True freedom is found in Christ, not a nation. Immigrants are coming to America and looking for a “home.” This earth is not our home, but Heaven is. Immigrants are “traveling light and are coming in the eye of the storm.” Yes, immigrants are coming and many Americans are upset that they are coming. But, “they coming to America today.” TODAY is the day of salvation! Will you GO? Will you make disciples of the nations in America today?