The Great Commission
Matt 28:18-20
1.
In the human history, there has been only one person who was perfectly sane and
claimed that he had come from heaven to save the world. He was Jesus Christ,
our Savior! There have been many religions, but all of them were relevant only
for some people or some culture because they were the products of some limited
age and culture with human wisdom. Only Christianity is the genuine world
religion for the whole human race without any discrimination or irrelevance. When
Jesus left this world and returned to heaven after accomplishing his atonement
on the cross and resurrection, he gave his last command to his followers of 120
first Christians: ¡°All authority in heaven and on earth has been given
to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to
obey everything I have commanded you.¡±(18-20a) It is called the Great Commission.
2. In the last two millennia,
the Christian churches in the world have obeyed this Last and Great Commission
to ¡°go and make disciples of all nations¡±
and paid any sacrifice to spread the Good News of salvation and happiness to
the world. So far, 70 million Christians have martyred to witness and spread
the Gospel, starting from all the apostles of Jesus. Now, there are 2 billion
Christians and 3.45 million churches in 238 countries of the world, 33% of the
world population. Every day 166 thousands people are newly converted to the
Christian faith, and every year 50 thousands new churches are planted. To
fulfill the Great Commission, 420 thousands missionaries are now spreading the
Gospel in all the nations of the world, together with 400 thousands short-term
missionaries with many professions and talents. USA
is sending the most missionaries, more than 100 thousands, and the second
largest missionaries are sent by Korea, now 13000 long-term
missionaries, increasing 1100 every year. They are working in almost every
country in the world including some dangerous regions. In this missionary
movement, the 3000 Korean churches in America are very active and
strategically important.
3. Our congregation is one
of the Christian churches, and the Great Commission of Jesus is ours to obey
and execute. So, we have supported missionaries for the last 20 years, now 11
missionaries or mission organizations. A good and healthy church is a church to
share our goods to the needy outside, whether it is our material goods or the
Good News for salvation and happiness. All of the goods in us are the gifts
given by God. As Jesus told us, ¡°Freely
you have received, freely give.¡±(Matt 10:8) Some of you might think that
they do not have the goods to give for others. But, in fact, there are so many
goods inside of you. An encouraging word, a warm smile, a lovely heart and
friendly compassion, a small gift, a dish of food, inspiring story of your
experience, and most of all the Gospel of salvation could be good enough to
encourage, satisfy, inspire, and change one¡¯s life. Our congregation will do
our best for outreach in two ways, one for sharing our material goods to the
poor people, and the other to share the Good News in evangelism and mission. By
these obedience and love, our congregation will be a good instrument of God to
deliver the grace of God to people as many as possible.
4. Our women¡¯s mission
society has faithfully and consistently supported and prayed for missionaries.
Our mission team also has led our congregation for missionary support.
Especially, a number of people in our congregation have been involved in
mission directly. Rev. Eung Ryoul Kim has visited China and helped some young
congregations there. Several members of our congregation helped to build church
buildings, seminary library, or some other wonderful things. Elder Hyo Myung
Ryou has served the Korean World Mission Council as co-chair and chairman of
lay mission movement division. Moreover, Peter Chang
and Jung Soo Huh have visited mission fields every year as short-term medical
missionaries. May God raise more missionaries from our congregation! Today, we
will see and listen how the Holy Spirit has used them as the instrument of His
love and grace. Jesus concluded His Great Commission with the promise that ¡°surely I am with you always, to the very end
of the age.¡±(20b)
