One hundred years ago, when Rosedale Network of Churches was very young, many of our leaders had accepted an interpretation of the Great Commission that held that the commission had been completed. In the first decades after Jesus spoke it, the disciples had done what he said and carried the gospel to the “ends of the earth” as they knew it.
But some challenged the status quo. Some said, “No, the commission still stands. We who follow Jesus must go.” I’m glad those voices eventually gained influence, because today, Rosedale Network has a vibrant heart to go to the ends of the earth. Rosedale Network exists, we agree, to mature and multiply churches locally and globally.
Over the years, I’ve heard other challenges to the Great Commission. Some have read the commission in Greek and argued that it doesn’t say, “Go and make disciples,” but instead, “As you go…” or “Going therefore…” Making disciples, it is maintained, must be intentional, but it just happens along the way as life happens. However, I remember well when my Greek professor pointed out that the participial phrase carries imperative force. Translating it “Go and make disciples” is the most accurate way to understand what Jesus meant.
“We see Jesus building His Church as He said He would.”
In more recent years, others have argued that it’s getting too expensive to send North Americans to faraway places. Instead of going ourselves, we should assist the churches that are already in the region so they can go. The problem is, the church doesn’t exist in some regions, so no one is going. I believe it’s a both/and situation. Yes, we should help near-culture people reach their “Samaria.” They can often do so more effectively than those from more distant languages and cultures. But this doesn’t relieve us of the responsibility to go. We are blessed with the financial resources and support structures that enable us to go to some of the hardest places. Might this not suggest that we should be the ones to go to those places that are the most expensive and difficult? Jesus said, “You will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth.”
Matthew 28 was not the first time Jesus told his disciples to go. It was the third time. In Matthew 10, he sent out the twelve: “Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:6 NIV). In Luke 10, he sent them out again, but by then they had multiplied to seventy-two: “Go! I’m sending you out like lambs among wolves” (Luke 10:3). Going—to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth—is not optional. It’s what Jesus’ disciples do.
It’s interesting to note the context of the first two commissions. Luke 10 says it like this: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Beg the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to thrust out workers into his harvest. Go! Do not take a purse or bag or sandals” (Luke 10:2-4a). The story in Matthew is similar. Pray for workers, and be one.
The primary questions we should be asking are not about cost or risk. High cost and great risk are pretty much guaranteed. Going drives us to our knees. On our knees, the primary questions become: “Where?” “When?” “To whom?” “How?” On our knees before our Good Shepherd, we find our answers. From that place, we go as His lambs, fully protected even while encountering wolves.
I count it a great privilege and joy to have been entrusted by God and by you, the church, with the role of leadership at Rosedale International (RI) these past two and a half decades. Thank you! Thank you for praying. Thank you for sending. Thank you for giving. Thank you for going.
As I transition into a new phase of mission, my role will change, but I intend to keep learning, growing, risking, sacrificing, and going. I want to continue to be an active participant in RI’s mission: Jesus to the world. The world to Jesus.
Today, there are more lost people in the world than there have ever been before. The least reached are still hard to reach. The darkness is deep. The call of Jesus is to everyone; His mission is for all of us. Let’s keep going!
Photo credit: Bohdan Hyrovych on Pexels
