In his book, Radical, David Platt, tells a story
about a friend who went a mission trip. He wrote: “One of my good friends spent
time recently among unreached and unengaged peoples in Southeast Asia. As he
talked with villagers in one remote area, he tried to uncover their core
beliefs. He asked them, “How were we created?” They responded, “We don’t know.”
He asked, “Who sends the rains for the crops?” They responded, “We don’t know
that either.” Then he asked, “What happens when we die?” They looked back at
him and said, “No one has come to tell us about that yet.” Soon thereafter he
found himself in another remote village with people who had never heard the
Gospel. They were warm and hospitable, and they invited him to share a drink
with them. One man went into his small shop and reappeared moments later with a
classic red Coke can. Immediately, it hit home with my friend. A soft-drink
company in Atlanta has done a better job getting brown sugar water to those
people than the church of Jesus Christ has done in getting the Gospel to them.”[i]
What that convicting story says to us is that the church still has a lot of work to do! Before Jesus ascended to heaven, He gave final march orders to the church in Matt. 28:19-20, “19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” This is the so-called “Great Commission,” and we must not let it become the “Great Omission” if we are to be obedient to our Lord.
Over the course of two millennia the church has made great strides in getting the Gospel to the ends of the earth. According to Global Frontier Missions It is estimated that of the 7.75 billion people alive in the world today, 3.23 billion of them live in unreached people groups (or a UPG as they call them) with little or no access to the Gospel. That means about 41% of the world’s population has no Bible, no church, and no form of media that tells the Good News.[ii]
We’ve got our work cut out for us. But our generation has a unique advantage because of the ability to mass communicate through the Internet, social media, radio and television. Today’s exponential curve in communications technology has played a vital role in reaching more of the world for Christ than has ever been reached in the previous nineteen centuries.
There’s also a prophetic angle to world evangelism. In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus predicted that, “This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matt. 24:14). In other words, as we draw closer to the Second Coming of Christ, we will see more people being given access to the Gospel. This doesn’t mean that the world will be totally Christianized, but that every nation will have the opportunity to hear and respond to the Gospel.
Even during the
Tribulation period, the Bible says that God will send forth 144,000 Jewish
evangelists (Rev. 7), the Two Witnesses (Rev. 11), and even the Gospel angel to
preach throughout the whole world (Rev. 14:6). As we see technology aid in
making the Gospel more accessible to the world we should rejoice because not
only are people being saved, but it points to the fact that Jesus is returning
soon.
How much time do we have? No man knows the day or the hour of the Lord’s return (Matt. 24:36; Luke 12:40). Prophetically speaking, I believe the Rapture is the next event on God’s calendar. World conditions appear to be aligning for an end-times scenario and the future events of the Tribulation are casting shadows on our times. The birth pangs are ratcheting up in frequency, intensity and visibility (Matt. 24:8; 1 Thess. 5:3). We don’t know how much time we have left, but we do know this: until Christ returns—whether today or years from now—we are to keep working towards fulfilling the Great Commission. -DM
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