Ezra Sargunam, India
“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
Mark 16:15–16
As I have passed the torch in my ministry, I recall how our forefathers in the Old Testament like Moses, Joshua, Jacob, and Samuel shared worthy counsel with their successors through farewell words in their twilight years.
During a respite in the fight against the tribes that had occupied Canaan before the arrival of the Israelites (Joshua 23), the aging Joshua gathered the elders and leaders together. He exhorted them to occupy the land God had helped them possess, fighting for them day and night and destroying their enemies, including the Canaanites who had besieged them. Joshua directed them to obey God’s commandments and remain firm, without swaying to the left or the right. He appealed to them to continue holding on to God firmly, as they had been doing all those years.
Samuel, too, counseled the people of Israel at the end of his life. He said that he had been abiding with them since the days of his youth and was now old. He reminded them that he gave them a king (Saul), conceding to their demand. Samuel spoke simple advice to Israel: “If you fear the Lord and serve and obey him and do not rebel against his commands, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God—good!” (1 Samuel 12:14).
What are my words of counsel for you? Evangelism and church planting must continue to be our heartbeat. The days of the “traditional church” have gone. God has given us the right to free the churches and see that they don’t get entangled in complicated ecclesiastical structures. Church planting is the birthright of every Christian. There are no restrictions.
Today, it can be difficult to find believers burdened to see salvation come to the lost. We are evangelists first and evangelists last. Our obsession should be to reach responsive people groups and disciple them in our lifetime. The people who are responsive today may not be responsive tomorrow. We should make an all-out effort to reach the lost for Jesus Christ.
Our concern for the underprivileged and for those who are oppressed and suppressed should never diminish either. Merely liberating people from their political and social oppression is not evangelism. Neither is it the salvation that Christ offers. It is holistic: “Man shall not live by bread alone” (Matthew 4:4; Luke 4:4).
Jesus said in Mark 16 to go into the entire world and preach the Gospel. Any church that does not take this commandment seriously—to preach the Gospel to those who haven’t heard it yet, baptize them, and save them from eternal condemnation—cannot call itself a Christ-following church.