Our adventure through the jungles and mountains, among the remote villages of Laos has got me thinking about our job, as the Church. There are a lot of good things that we do as Christians, but there are a few very specific things Jesus highlighted as being our top priority.
First of all, we are to love God with everything in us. When asked what is the greatest of all the commandments given to God’s people, Jesus responded, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment” (Matthew 22:37-38).
Then he said, “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). As Christians we are to love people. As we encounter the love of God through the first commandment, His love flows through us and empowers us to love other people. Then He said “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets,” meaning that everything God commands His people to do is based on those two principles (Matthew 22:40).
Those are the two greatest things we could ever do with our lives: love God and love people. But just before Jesus ascended to Heaven to be with the Father, He left us with another great command. We call it the Great Commission. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19). Before Jesus left the earth, he left us with a mission: make disciples of all nations.
The Greek word Ethnos, translated as “nations” in this verse, is more accurately translated “people groups,” referring to a people joined by practicing similar customs or common culture. There are LOTS of people groups in the world. Each one has its own language, dress, food, beliefs, customs, and culture. And each one needs to hear about the God who created them and loves them, how we were separated from Him by our sin, and how Jesus made a way for us to be back in relationship with God by living a perfect, sinless life and then taking the punishment for our sins upon Himself.
I want to tell you about a couple we met in Thailand who is living this Great Commission out beautifully. We met them one Sunday back in February when our host took us to visit one of the hill tribe churches in the area. When we arrived, we were surprised to be welcomed by four white people in their 70s. Two were a German couple who have lived with the Palaung people for over 50 years. They learned the language, which was only a spoken language at the time. They eventually invented a written form of the language, and then they translated the New Testament into Palaung. They are currently working on translating the Old Testament. The other couple were newly married. The husband was from England, and the wife from New Zealand. The wife has been in partnership with the German couple for many years. She is the Biblical scholar who has helped them with the accuracy of their translation, keeping it as true to the original Greek and Hebrew as possible. And these two couples were meeting in person for the very first time. They are living the kind of life that goes down in history books, and it was such a treat to meet them.
I was so inspired and encouraged by this couple who have lived such lives of unnoticed greatness. To be honest, I don’t even remember their names, other than that both of the women were named Margaret. But that doesn’t matter to them. All that matters is that the Palaung people have received the Gospel and this entire people group (which spans from Myanmar, to Thailand and parts of China) is coming to know the Lord. If you’re interested, you can read more about the Palaung people here: http://www.peoplesoftheworld.org/text?people=Palaung.
I know we are not all called to leave our home country, move across the world, and adopt the language and culture of an unreached people group. But I think more people should. There are so many more people groups out there who need to be reached, and it only takes one person to bring the Gospel to them. And for those who aren’t called to go, we can still obey the Great Commission by praying and sending. We can pray for the missionaries that are out there, for the people groups to be open to receive the truth of the Gospel, and for the Lord of the harvest to send more laborers into the fields (Luke 10:2). We can also support missionaries and missions organizations with our finances. I can’t think of a more worthy cause to support than making the name of Jesus known where He isn’t known. Many of you have done this by supporting me, which is wonderful, and I encourage you to continue supporting missions efforts in the future.
A great resource to learn more about all the specific known unreached people groups around the world is Joshua Project. They have lists of groups according to country they live in, and a bio on each group, with specific prayer requests. They also have an app you can download that gives you a prayer notification with a specific people group to pray for every day. You can find it here: www.joshuaproject.net
Come on Church, we still have an unfinished task to complete.
“How, then, can they call on the one they don’t believe in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?”
– Romans 10:14-15
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
– Matthew 24:14
