Have you ever wondered why Jesus told us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel in every nation? Every day, we encounter people in our own communities who need to hear the hope that we have – the hope in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Isn’t the task to reach those in our hometowns large enough?
The truth is, both are equally important. The Great Commission, as outlined in Matthew 28:19-20, includes people as close to us as our families and friends and it includes people on the other side of the globe. Jesus told us in Acts 1:8 that we are to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth. This covers our hometown (Jerusalem), our region (Judea), regions closest to us but of a different culture (Samaria), and the rest of the world.
No place and no one may be excluded. We don’t have the option to choose one or the other. God’s command covers both, and our responsibility is to share the Gospel with people at home and around the world.
A 2015 Pew Research Center study estimated about one-third of the population (2.3 billion people) claims to be Christian. But most of these believers are concentrated in certain regions. The Joshua Project estimates that 3.29 billion people (42%) still live in areas that are considered unreached – that means, less than 2% of the ...
