The Blog
1.3 - Isn't "all" a little much?
On the evening of the resurrection day, Jesus met the disciples and gave them the first of His instructions: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (Jn. 20:21). About a week later, Jesus again appears to His disciples and further elaborates on their mission by defining its scope. “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mk. 16:15).
Did He just use “all” twice in one sentence? I can understand “all” when it’s something I can see or touch, like “you mean you ate it all?” But this kind of “all” is a lot trickier to wrap my mind around. Jesus is talking about “all the world” and “all creation,” describing the scope of His follower’s mission with two encompassing descriptions. “All the world” makes it a global command. It’s a macro statement, capturing the more than 16,000 people groups spread throughout the earth. “All creation,” on the other hand, is a micro statement. It has in view every person. While the goal is that every person has a compelling invitation to follow Jesus, there is a hint of the broader impact. As more people encounter Christ and worship Him, more people will take up the stewardship of creation. Salvation is a social event in that its fruit radiates beyond the individual to others and to creation itself.
Sent….into all the world…to preach the good news…to everyone. Is Jesus serious? Does He have any idea how many people that is? The most conservative estimate I could find of how many people are yet without a compelling invitation to follow Jesus is 1.9 billion people. That’s a lot of people!
Perhaps this will help you understand how really big that number is. A new iPhone 3G has 32 GB of memory and can load 6000 songs (assuming that the average song is about 4 minutes long). That means an iPhone can play your favorite songs for 2 weeks without repeats or pauses. Consider this: if each song represents one person that is without a culturally appropriate, compelling invitation to follow Jesus, your iPhone 3G will play non-stop for over 12,000 years before it has played one song for each of the lost people in the world. That is 6 times the number of years it has been since Jesus walked on this earth.
Sent….into all the world…to preach the good news…to everyone. Is Jesus serious? Yes, He is! As He continues to unravel this great commission to His followers, He lets us know how it will be accomplished.
He is serious. Are we?
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Welcome to the official SEND blog. Here you will find updates from contributers serving in a variety of fields around the world.
