Why I Go to the Nations

In my 27 years of ministry, I have at times been asked by other Christians, "Why go on a foreign mission trip?"  The question comes from several different perspectives of misunderstanding of scripture, so I want to address the question in the right manner.

1.  We go because Jesus said to go.

The last teaching of Jesus to the disciples in found in the missional passage of Matthew 28:18-20 "And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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.”

After telling them that all authority in heaven and on earth was his, He now tells them to "Go".  He says go!  We can't run past this word.  The command is to be people on the go.  

2.  We are to go to the nations

The going nature of the church is to be one where the vision of going is to the nations.  It is not just locally, but globally.  Going is marked with a mindset of local to global, not just local.  Going has the ends of the earth in view.  I believe if the ends of the earth are not in view, then there won't be the right local focus.  Our vision must rise higher and be extended further.

3.  We go because the first church planters went

Yes, they were disciples, but they were also the first generations of church planters.  These men would go to the nations.  Why did they go?  Was it their thoughts?  Obviously we know it is not, they went because Jesus said to go.  These men set the pattern of going for us.  They had specifically received the words from Jesus and they followed them.

• Peter went to Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia (1 Peter 1:1)
• Andrew went to eastern Syria, and the nations of the former Soviet Union, particularly Ukraine, Turkey and Greece
• Thomas went to Syria, India
• Philip is believed to have gone to North Africa and Asia Minor
• Matthew ministered in Persia (Iran) and Ethiopia
• Bartholomew went to Armenia and south Arabia and is believe to have also gone to India with Thomas
• James son Alpheus went to Syria
• Simon the Zealot went to Persia
• Matthias went to Syria with Andrew
• John went to Turkey, Greece
• Paul went Greece, Syria, Malta, Turkey, Cyprus, Lebanon, Italy, in Romans 15:28 he says that he planned to go to Spain. 

Their going is our understanding of what Jesus meant in Matthew 28.

4.  We go because going to the nations is the pattern of the Bible.

From early on, God's heart was that the blessing of Christ would go to all the nations.  This passage in Genesis 22 is about Jesus.  He is the one who will bless the nations from Abraham.

Genesis 22:17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

Those are 4 reasons why I will always go to the nations and call people to go.