by Pastor Joel Lawler

Jesus had completed His work here on earth. He had come, lived a sinless life, preached hope and love to the masses, healed many, discipled a group of men, gave His life for our sins and kicked hell and death in the teeth by rising again from the grave.

He had done what He was called to do and what no one else could have accomplished. All creation now had a pathway to restoration through Him. What was being held captive by sin and death, He created a way to freedom.
It was time to go back to His Father in heaven and leave us to continue the work that He had started. We were given the task to tell His story, love the unlovely, give hope to the hopeless, heal the sick, befriend the friendless and most of all, live as He did so as to point all men to Him.
Here in Mark 16:15-18, Jesus gives us our instructions.

He [Jesus] said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people,

and they will get well."

What Happened? Why aren't we following through with this?

We are not following through on what Jesus commanded us to do. We have built corporations who escape taxation because they call themselves a church. Instead of going we have put our shovel to the ground and built cathedrals. Instead of proclaiming the good news our words are harsh and we condemn the very people that Jesus gave His life for. We ostracize people in the name of politics, cultural differences or denomination We can and need to do far better than we are doing. We need to get back to what Jesus called us to do.

The Apostle Paul took Jesus words to heart. He went wherever he could preaching the good news of salvation until he was imprisoned and eventually beheaded. While he was in Athens, he walked among the people, he talked to them and became familiar with their culture. He built a relationship with them. As he stood before them he was able to take something that they held dear and use it as a road into telling them about Jesus.

Acts 17:22-23

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

Paul did not concern himself with what others would think if they saw him fraternizing with pagans. He was determined to bring the message of hope regardless.

Jesus could have done the task of telling others himself but instead He left this work for us to do. He could have brought about world peace, healed all the sick, brought down the tyrannical Roman government and fed all the poor. He did not. He followed through with His calling and left bringing the news of salvation to us. He is the only hope of the world and through Him only will there be peace, justice and healing. It is our responsibility to pass that message on to anyone and everyone.
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