Twice in the Scriptures we see the Lord Jesus Christ
telling people to “sin no more” (John 5:14 & John 8:11). According to my understanding, as long as we live our
lives in this present flesh, this is an impossible command to obey. In John’s
first epistle he write these words inspired by the Holy Ghost, “If
we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1
John 1:8). So we know that no matter who we are, we will battle a life-long
struggle with sin until the Lord returns and changes “our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body”
(Philippians 3:21). This, therefore,
is my understanding of the Lord’s command to “sin no more”: it is a command that we will never be able to
completely obey, but we are to do our very best.
There is another
command in Scripture that I used to believe was similar in the sense that we
will never be able to completely obey it in this lifetime, but we were supposed
to give our very best effort. Mark 16:15,
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all
the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” I thought, “Every
creature? That’s impossible, but I’m going to try my best.”
I was wrong,
though. It is not impossible.
1. Biblical example
shows us it can be done.
In Paul’s ministry there was a time when he spent three
years in Ephesus. There he labored and as a result every creature that dwelt in
what was then called Asia heard the gospel. Acts 19:10 says, “And this continued by the space of two years;
so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus,
both Jews and Greeks.” An
example of a group of believers that dwelt in Asia and who did not live in the
place where Paul was would be the Colossians. They lived about 100 miles inland
from Ephesus and the believers there had never seen Paul’s face (Colossians 2:1). Yet there was a
church! Most likely Paul had reached Epaphras, who was himself a Colossian,
trained him, and then he was sent to plant a church in Colossae (Colossians 1:7 & Colossians 4:12). The point here though
is the fact that due to Paul’s ministry in Ephesus, every inhabitant of a
specific region heard the gospel. Look at what it says happened during Paul’s
first missionary journey with Barnabas in Acts
13:49, “And the word of the Lord was
published throughout all the region.” How about the example of
Philip the evangelist after he won and baptized the Ethiopian eunuch? It says
in Acts 8:40, “But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in
all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.”
If these biblical examples are not enough to prove that
getting the gospel to every creature is possible, then surely what we read in
Paul’s letter to the Colossian believers seals the deal, “If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of
the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under
heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;” (Colossians 1:23; see also Colossians
1:6)
2. History shows
us it can be done.
Take the example
of the great Missionary Charles Cowman in the orient. Charles Cowman left the
comforts of home to preach the gospel to the Japanese over one hundred years
ago. The heartcry of Cowman and every great missionary has been, “The
evangelization of every creature in our generation.” At the time he left for
Japan there were a total of 10,376,700 homes in that country. Having led a
successful ministry in Tokyo, Cowman became increasingly burdened for the rural
populations of Japan. He devised a plan that developed into what he called,
“The Great Village Campaign”. The goal was to systematically take the gospel to
every home in Japan. Their great team was successful in that they sent personal
workers to every home in the country; these workers left a portion of Scripture
and preached the gospel to everyone they met. One would think this daunting
task must have taken a lifetime, but that is not true. Charles Cowman and his
team of workers managed to get the gospel to over ten million homes in just six
years. This man proved it can be done.
God did not mean
for the great commission to be done little by little over 2,000 years so that
by the time He comes back the gospel would have gotten to every part of the
earth. The thrust of the great commission is individuals and it is something
that must be actively accomplished during every generation. Each generation of
believers is responsible for the evangelization of every creature during their
generation. We can’t trust the generation before us because they had a
generation of their own and now they are dead. We cannot trust the generation
to come because they will have their own generation to reach and ours will have
died. We have a window of opportunity during our short lives to get the gospel
to every creature in our generation.
How can it be
done?
Every church must have a ministry that constantly works
to get the gospel to every creature in their region. That church also must consistently
support missionaries who are doing the same work (getting the gospel to every
creature in their region) through prayers and financial support. The philosophy
of every missionary should be, “To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you” (2
Corinthians 10:16). Those missionaries in turn must go to the regions
beyond and start churches that will continue the cycle of evangelizing and
discipling while dedicating themselves to the evangelization of every creature
in their region and supporting missionaries who are doing the work in regions
beyond them.
Not only is “Go ye into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature” something that we can do, but it is something
that we must do. We will do our part in our region, and we will support those
in the regions beyond us; what will you do?
[This article was originally written by myself as a guest blogger on a friend's blog: http://pastorstrother.com/]
