Mathew 28:16-20
We had a guest speaker of sorts in church this week. She is a missionary who leads a team in Paris, France that focuses on reaching Sub-Saharan Africans who live in Paris. Our church is currently partnering with her since we adopted the Wolof as our unreached people group to focus on. The church has gone on a few mission trips to Paris over the past few years.
The missionary covered several things such as how they categorize people they interact with and the programs they use for reaching people. They group people into categories like “unresponsive”, “asking questions”, and “ready for discipleship”. Those aren’t the exact terms but they represent what the categories meant. “Unresponsive” people are ones that hear but aren’t ready to explore Christianity as an option for them; the missionaries will continue to serve these people, but they won’t push the Gospel until they move into the next group. The people “asking questions” have heard and want to know more; they are curious and this is the group of people that the missionaries spend the most time with. The ones “ready for discipleship” have heard and accepted the Gospel as truth. They start their preparation for reaching others.
Some of the programs they use for reaching people are classes for English and French. They also hold Bible studies and worship services and just talk with people on the street as well as inviting them over and going to houses when they’ve built a strong enough relationship.
A big part of reaching the lost is just building relationships.
After the little interview, our associate pastor gave the shortest sermon of all time. The great commission in Matthew 28:16-20 tells us to go and make disciples, but the language used also tells us some other things.
Five observations from the Great Commission:
Jesus is LORD of all things.
Join God at work in of all things.
Surrender all things to Jesus.
Trade all things for everything your soul desires/requires.
Jesus traded all things in Heaven for you have everything.