The Mission to Europe: GO, READ, EXPLAIN, BAPTIZE and SPREAD
Why?
We have been given instructions to Go, Read, Explain, Baptize, and Spread. God has called us to this work and it is now our primary mission in life.
What do I mean by that?
While doing a study of Acts 8: 26 – 40, these five words where planted deep into my heart.
1. Go. We cannot just be hearers of the Word. If we believe in our hearts, we need to confess with our mouths that Jesus is our Savior; and we need to go to all who have not yet heard, and even to those who have heard but do not yet believe. (Matthew 28: 18 - 20) Then Jesus came up and said to them, “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 the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Go does not mean we all need to leave where we are and go to foreign lands to proclaim the gospel, although some are called to do just that. Go means to turn to our neighbor, be it the person next door or the person half a world away. We need to be the beautiful feet that bring the good news everywhere we go. We cannot keep this news to ourselves we must speak it, live it, breath it. Every conversation we have should be sprinkled with the good news.
2. Read. Just like the eunuch in Acts, we need to renew our minds everyday with the Word. We must study the Word so we can test everything we hear and discard the bad, evil, false material and cling to that which is good and profitable. 2 Tim 3:16 & 17 Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work.
3. Explain. This is twofold: firstly, we need to have the Word opened to us by the Holy Spirit. We need to ask for the wisdom and discernment to understand, deep in our hearts, the truth revealed to us in God’s Word. In Ephesians 1:17 Paul prays for ~ “spiritual wisdom and revelation~” Paul was asking the Holy Spirit to reveal the Word to us and to give us the wisdom we need to understand the truth. Secondly, we need to be ready to explain the Word of God to those who ask. Philip, by being obedient and explaining the prophecy, opened the eunuch up to salvation. It is tied with Read, for how can we explain if we do not know ourselves…
4. Baptize. This is part of the great commission. Jesus commanded this of us in Matthew 28:19 & 20 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” We must follow through when we have shared the gospel and the person believes and wants to be saved. We must give them the opportunity to put skin in the game and baptize them.
5. Spread. In other words: continue, do not stop; the good news must be spread. To spread, we need to disciple those who have believed. We need to train them in the way of righteousness. We must reach as many people as possible, knowing we do not do this alone. Jesus is with us always, to the end of time. We need to spread the message so that all those who have heard and believed will be in the multitude that will be there when Jesus returns.