Missions = building relationships

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19 (ESV)

            Growing up this was the verse that honestly scared me the most, mostly the first part. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” That was because it convicted me. It convicted me because I was not telling others about Jesus Christ at all. From what I thought of this verse I needed to go to other countries and tell them about Jesus. Or I had to preach about Jesus in my high school at lunchtime or in my classrooms. But if I was truly smart I would know and realize that any fear we have it can be refuted in the Bible or with prayer time. God knew my fears of this verse and has now decided to give me the wisdom to see what this verse really means to me.

The context of this verse is that Jesus had risen and was now going to ascend into heaven. As Jesus is ascending into heaven He says “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19. These were his LAST parting words with his disciples…did you get that His LAST parting words. Jesus could have said anything to them, but He chose these words. He chose these words because they are the most important. Go and make disciples meaning go and bring people to be followers of Jesus. You might be reading that verse and saying NOPE not doing it, I can’t go out in the world and talk about Jesus. They are going to think I am crazy. That is what I thought too, but now a year later from when I decided to follow Jesus again, I can now say making disciples is not that hard. Although I am only a baby in my faith I am not that scared anymore. It is actually pretty easy and you probably do it already but do not even know it. But I will explain why I think it is pretty easy.

            I am lucky enough to be a part of a college ministry called Chi Alpha where God has taught me a lot. Through this past year God knew I needed a body of believers to surround me with love to survive and He graciously gave me Chi Alpha. But through Chi Alpha I got to go to a retreat called SALT, which was four days full of God time and knowledge. On one of the days I got to learn about missions and how it applies to us today. We went through Luke 10, which I recommend going through and analyzing each sentence. But through this session I learned that all that when Jesus says “Go therefore and make disciples”  he means just build a relationship with them that glorifies Him. For that is what “missions” means…to make a relationship with someone. I don’t mean a romantic relationship; I mean a friendship with someone.  Think about it what do you do when you make a friend? You get to know them. You find out what they are interested in and they find out what you are interested in. You talk about life: past, present, and future. It doesn’t have to mean that you have to evangelize at them, although you could and that would be fine too. But it can just be talking with them and through those discussions they will see your love for them and see your passion for Jesus. What do you think missionaries do in other countries? They build relationships with people and the culture so they can eventually talk about their faith and their love for Jesus.
            If you don’t believe me look at the biggest missionary of all time…..Jesus Christ. Read the Gospels, follow his life…it is all about showing love to people and understanding them. Throughout Jesus’s ministry He healed people, talked to people one on one, preached to them, fed them, understood them, and loved them. Mark 8:1-10 talks about Jesus feeding people. Think about that today we could do that. We can get lunch with people or even have coffee date with them. How many coffee dates have you been on…what do you think you were doing... you were building a friendship.  In Luke 19:1-10 Jesus met with Zacchaeus, in John 3:1-15 Jesus met with Nicodemus, and in John 4:1-43 Jesus met with the Samaria woman at the well. Jesus met with these people and built a relationship with them so they could see the truth. We can easily do that with coffee or lunch.  With all of Jesus’s walks of ministry He showed love to all of the people no matter what. Jesus came to Earth to foremost be a sacrifice for us but to be an example for us to follow. So if He made relationships with people we should too. If He loved people we should also love people. For in John 13:34 Jesus says “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” I don’t know about you but in my opinion Jesus was a great missionary and we should follow his example.

            So missions doesn’t always mean that you have to preach on a pulpit or go to a different region of the world to bring people to Jesus, like I originally thought. It can though and those that do are truly amazing. But to me missions or making disciples means showing Jesus through my love for others or the coffee dates that I have with people, or the new friends I make in class. For if those people get to know you the way friendships normally do… it would be hard for Jesus not to shine through you to them.  So go make disciples in your classrooms, your work, your home, or even a different country. It isn’t that hard if you have Jesus on your side. Jesus called each one of us to do this and with His help we can do it, but ONLY with his help. He even says it in Matthew 29:19 “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Missions = building relationships

In Him