Jesus the Missionary
Everything about God is missional. When God created Adam and Eve, He commissioned them to “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen. 1:28).

Later, the father of our faith, Abraham, was blessed by God with an incredible promise that was meant to extend beyond his own family. God blessed him so that “all peoples on earth will be blessed through [him]” (Gen. 12:3).

Fast forward to the New Testament, and Jesus commanded the apostles to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Mat. 28:19). Can you see the echoing of the Genesis commission here?

During the forty days after His resurrection, Jesus says again to all his disciples, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Ac. 1:8).

We can see the DNA of mission in the life of Jesus.
Jesus was incarnated as a missionary to the world (Jn.1:14).
Jesus’s vision was to reach every people group on earth (Heb.12:2; Rev.7:9-12).
Jesus’s commission to us was to make disciples of all nations (Mat.28:19).

For over two thousand years, the Church has lived out this ever-expanding mission. Beginning with the Apostles, the Church began to spread beyond Jerusalem to surrounding nations.

There was an explosion of cross-cultural missions in the Protestant Reformation. A small church in Moravia sent out over two hundred missionaries around the world. William Carey, known as the father of modern missions, was a long-term and pioneering missionary in India.

The Catholic Church has a strong history of global missionary engagement. Ignatius of Loyola started the Jesuit movement with the heart to spread the gospel to nations across the earth.  

God's people have always dedicated themselves to the mission of Christ. The challenge for us is to look beyond the needs and demands of our lives here and engage in the global spread of the gospel. Are we up for that? Are we willing to trust God to look after our needs so that we can focus on the great commission of making disciples of all nations?

Below is Sunday’s message on YouTube.