Jesus is the desire of the nations. He is the hope for humanity. No matter which side of the Cross you look at, the hope of the nations is Jesus Christ and the gospel of the Kingdom. Without the gospel, we are doomed to hell without a chance.
Michael Green in Evangelism in the Early Church makes it clear that we must be saved from our paganism, or our worldliness.The gospel is partly redemption from ourselves. We want to live in our own paganism or worldliness.
We want to claim we that we love Jesus but we do not love sinners. You can not love the Lord of the Harvest and not love the sinners. We are not allowed to determine the harvest by the size of the barn but rather the size of the field that is ripe. How big is your field?
The reason that we do not see more revival in the Church is not a problem on God’s end. It is because we do not want to pay the price for revival. We do not want to die to ourselves so the gospel can be preached to the sinner. Christianity is our Sunday fix.
Completing the Great Commission
As Ralph Riggs, the great Pentecostal statesmen put it, “When Spirit-filled people have the courage and the faithfulness to obey our Lord and follow the apostolic pattern in spreading the true gospel, we will see the whole world evangelized in this generation.”((Ralph Riggs, So I send You, Preface)) We are still waiting for a missional church to finish the Great Commission!
Jesus left us with one thing to do: proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth. That means every tongue, every tribe, every nation. No one in excused of hearing the gospel with miracle confirmation. They can accept it or reject it but they must make a decision about the Savior.
Wonsuk Ma, the Korean theologian says, “The outpouring of the Holy Spirit was taken as a sure sign for the end of the end time, the last opportunity for the greatest harvest of souls before the return of the Lord.”((Wonsuk Ma, The Theological Motivations for Pentecostal Mission, International Journal of Pentecostal Missiology, 2014)) Many of us believed that from Azusa Street, we would take the gospel to the ends of the earth then the end will come!
For them, the call of Matthew 24:14 was litteral. They believe the gospel of the Kingdom would be preached to all nations (people group) then the end will come.
Jesus is coming back soon and very soon. We are in the eleventh hour. How much longer to finish the only thing Jesus told us to be about is not promised. He could come for the Church tonight. Have we been faithful?
If we call people to a prayer meeting for the lost, we can pack a stadium. If we want to have a worship gathering, convention centers are full. If we want to evangelism, everyone is busy and full of excuses.
The gospel must matter
We have to come a realization that the gospel really is not that important to us as believers. We are glad that we got it, sucks for those who haven’t heard it yet. The Great Commission is not the great suggestion.
