This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, Doors to the World.
Our world population is rapidly growing. Every second, four children are born. There are around eight billion people in the world right now—
And many of them have never heard the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
But today, we have opportunities and abilities to take the Gospel to them like the Church of history never had.
The Church’s mandate is to take the message of the Gospel of Christ to the ends of the earth. We are to bring souls, disciples of all nations, and lay them at the Lord Jesus’ feet.
Jesus made this clear when He gave the disciples the Great Commission:
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen (Matthew 28:18-20).
People have different backgrounds. But every man, woman, and child has one thing in common…
Every person has sinned. Meet any man on the street: no matter the color of his face or the origin of his birth, you can know there is problem in his heart. It is sin.
Most of us are proud of our ancestry. But trace it far enough back, and we are all the sons and daughters of a drunken sailor and a crooked farmer—Noah and Adam. And in Adam, all die:
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22).
The problem in this world is nothing more, and nothing less, than sin. All men have the same heartache, and the same deep-rooted hunger for God.
Jesus Christ is the answer. That fact, the good news that Christ’s blood is our means of redemption, is the message of the Gospel that we are supposed to be proclaiming.
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:
“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10:14-15).
God said to the Apostle Philip, “Arise and go.” (See Acts 8:26.)
God told Ananias, “Arise and go.” (See Acts 9:11.)
God said to Simon Peter, “Arise therefore, and go.” (See Acts 10:20.)
Jesus said to all believers, “Go therefore.” (See Matthew 28:19.)
Do you see a theme?
All men have the same sin, the same hunger for God, the same need for salvation. And God uses human instruments to arise and go and point them to Christ.
Peter was an ordained preacher. Philip was a deacon. (See Acts 6:1-6.) What was Ananias? We don't know. He represents the laymen. Christ’s command is to every Christian. A Christian who refuses to go in fulfillment of the Great Commission is not just missing a blessing—he or she is guilty of high treason against Heaven’s King.
You ask, “Where am I supposed to go?” Wherever God tells you to. It might be next door. It might be around the world.
“How am I supposed to go?” You can physically go. But you can always go with your prayers—this is a crucial part of the Great Commission. You can go by sending your money to support local and foreign missionaries. You can go by raising your children to be followers of Christ and lights in the world. You can go with your testimony.
Philip was led by the Holy Spirit away from his work in Samaria, out into the desert, to meet one man—because he was available to God.
Are you willing to say to God, “Anytime, anyplace, anywhere, any cost”?
God said to Ananias, “I want you to go and speak to this man Saul.”
Ananias answered,
“Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name” (Acts 9:13b-14).
Yes. That Saul.
The Lord said to him,
“Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15b).
And Ananias went.
That is the willingness to be expendable.
In the Book of Acts, God wanted to teach Peter a lesson, so He sent Peter a vision: a sheet descending from Heaven full of unclean animals.
And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common” (Acts 10:13-15).
What was the point of this?
There was a gentile, Cornelius, who was seeking the truth of the Gospel message. Peter was a Jew; Jews did not fellowship with Gentiles. God was teaching Peter that he had to get rid of his prejudice and bias in order to share the Gospel.
We can never change the Word of God or compromise the lordship of Christ for anybody. But we should be willing to do anything, and go anywhere, to reach people for Jesus Christ.
God uses human instruments to share the Gospel. But the effectiveness of evangelism is not in our hands. We preach the good news, and it is God the Holy Spirit who softens a person’s heart to receive it. Without the Holy Spirit, evangelism is fruitless.
Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:5-6).
How will people be convinced that Jesus is the Son of God? How will they trust that the Scriptures are true?
How will you know whether Jesus has really transformed the life of a professing new believer?
The Holy Spirit of God convicts and confirms.
We are not salesmen peddling the Gospel message. We are not just trying to argue people into signing the dotted line. We are not dependent upon eloquence, logic, or personal magnetism. We need the Holy Spirit of God to convict people of what is preached—and He will do it! All is in vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down.
Just as the wind comes from Heaven, the Holy Spirit comes from Heaven. As the wind moves at will, commanded by nobody, so the Holy Spirit of God is sovereign and moves at will. As the wind is mysterious—we cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going—so is the Holy Spirit. Yet, as the wind operates according to fixed laws, so does God’s blessed precious Holy Spirit.
The wind is invisible, but powerful! And the Holy Spirit of God is an invisible, powerful force living in every believer in Jesus.
Acts 6:1-6, 8-10; Matthew 28:18-20; 1 Corinthians 15:22; Romans 10:14-15; John 3:5-6
And He [Jesus] said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 6:15-16, Word in brackets added).
Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve (1 Corinthians 15:1-5).
