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DAY 5: The Great Co-Mission
Missions Conference 2010 Devotional | View the Entire Devotional Series
We’ve been looking this week at how God is a missionary God and how we are sent, like Jesus, to be missionaries to the very time and place in which we live.
On Monday we looked at the Great Commission. Maybe you could go read it again in Matthew 28:19-20. When you think about the command to make disciples of “all nations”, it’s a pretty intimidating and daunting task. If you’re like me, you think to yourself, “How in the world am I supposed to accomplish that???” Or maybe even, “How in the world could God expect me to do that?” I understand that I’m sent out to be a missionary like Jesus, but how do I do it?
A pastor and scholar named Eugene Peterson wanted to better communicate God’s word to his people. He longed for them to be able to read it in a way that was easily and quickly understood. He began studying the original Hebrew and Greek languages of the bible and, to make a long story short, translated it into a paraphrased version of the bible called, “The Message”. Here’s how he translated Matthew 28:19-20 in The Message:
Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.
I quote that version here because I think it helps answer the “how” question.
1. Start where you are.
I love how Peterson translates verse 19 – Go out and train everyone you meet, near and far…
Remember, God has placed you in the specific place and time you are on purpose. Your career, your interests, your talents, your passions… — God’s desire is to use you to go out and train everyone you meet with the Gospel. He can use you to reach specific people and affect specific causes that others cannot. Will you be faithful for his specific calling in your life to spread the Gospel? Start where you are, where he’s placed you, with everyone you meet.
2. Jesus is with you.
Jesus promises in verse 20 that he will be and is with us every step of the way, even when it’s tough, even to the end. When I remember that promise, the Great Commission becomes the Great “Co-Mission” to me. I’m not alone. Those of you who farm might think of it as the ultimate co-op! You and Jesus. Better said, Jesus with you. And 99.999% of that is Jesus. It’s by his power, his authority, his work on the cross that I have any hope of being an effective missionary that reaches the world with the Gospel. I’m not alone, Jesus is with me always, even when it’s tough, even to the end.
Journaling Questions
- Does the Great Commission intimidate you at all? How so? Write about it.
- How can you start where you are? What are some ways/places God can use you to spread the Gospel that he might not be able to use someone else? Be specific.
- How does thinking of it as the Great “Co-Mission” change your perspective on living out the mission of God?