Summary
Every Christian a Missionary
The Great Commission is given without geographic, vocational, or temperamental limits. When Jesus said, "Go and make disciples of all nations," He did not restrict that calling to a particular profession or personality type, nor did He confine it to a specific time and place. Every baptized Christian is sent—into the family room, the workplace, the school, the grocery store, the golf course. The mission field is wherever God has placed you, with whomever He has placed beside you. This is what Lutherans sometimes call the divine appointment: God puts us in a particular place and time, with particular people, for His kingdom purposes.
Sharing the faith makes us vulnerable. What we believe is so personal and so central to who we are that to speak of it is to expose ourselves to rejection. That fear is real, and Christians need not pretend otherwise. But the call remains, and so does the promise: it is not our eloquence that converts, but the Word itself. Drawing on Galatians 2:20, the Christian goes out knowing that "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." It is Christ in us who speaks, Christ in us who loves the neighbor, Christ in us who proclaims forgiveness. The introvert is no less commissioned than the extrovert; God equips each disciple according to how He has made them. (See Lessons from the Mission Field 11-17-24.)
Mission rarely looks the way we expect. In Acts 16:11–15, Paul and his companions are diverted by the Spirit to Macedonia, go outside the city looking for a gathering of men at a place of prayer, and instead find a group of women by the river. Paul does not abandon the moment because it fails to match his plan. He sits down and preaches, the Lord opens Lydia's heart, and she and her household are baptized. The lesson is plain: when God places unexpected people in our path, that is not permission to close our mouths. It is the appointment itself. We plant the seed; the Spirit grows what He wills.
Mission also takes ordinary, local forms. A preschool ministry that introduces two-, three-, and four-year-olds to Jesus through chapel, music, Bible stories, and the witness of teachers and volunteers is genuine mission outreach—an arm of the church reaching into the community and beyond. So is GriefShare, which gathers those bearing the heaviest sorrow of their lives and points them, through Scripture and shared experience, to the only One who can give lasting comfort and strength to move forward. A Christian who invites a neighbor to watch The Chosen, who carries an extra Portals of Prayer in her purse, who answers a stranger's call for help by going in person rather than just sending money—these are missionaries. The common thread is willingness to ask, to go, to speak. (See Lessons from the Mission Field 11-24-24.)
Is anyone unworthy to hear? Jesus answers in the parable of the laborers in the vineyard Matthew 20:1–16. Those hired at the eleventh hour receive the same wage as those who bore the burden of the day. The grumbling of the early workers exposes the "fairness monster" in every human heart—the suspicion that someone else's grace somehow diminishes our own. But the kingdom does not work by merit. None of us deserves the wage; all of us receive it by the Master's generosity. The deathbed confession is as fully welcomed as the lifelong confession. We do not get to decide who is worth the seed.
There is, however, urgency. It does become too late—when life ends. While breath remains, no one is beyond the reach of grace. A grandfather of ninety-nine, a lifelong skeptic and man of science, can finally hear, "Jesus loves you and forgives all your sins," and receive it like a child. As 2 Peter 3:8–9 reminds us, the Lord is not slow concerning His promise but patient, "not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." That patience is also our marching order. We go forth as God's missionaries this side of heaven, trusting that His Word, as Isaiah 55:11 promises, will not return to Him empty.
Video citations
- Lessons from the Mission Field 11-17-24 — So we talked last week about how we are all missionaries, how we are not necessarily called to go and proclaim the gospel in China, we may be, but we may not be. But we are called to go and make…
- Lessons from the Mission Field 11-24-24 — Lord Jesus, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for being the God that you are, the God who redeems us, saves us and calls us to be your own. Lord we ask that in this time of study together…