After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples and gave them a job that has never been taken back: “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15). Christians call it the Great Commission. Most believers can quote some version of it. Far fewer churches organize their lives around it.
Mark’s account makes three things clear: who the gospel is for, what happens after people believe it, and what is at stake if the church never gets around to sharing it.
Disruption Comes Before Roots
Many Christians can trace their faith to a local church that took them in. But people only get rooted when the soil gets moved around. There has to be a little disruption if a church wants to make disciples.
The Jesus Movement of the late 1960s is a vivid example. As the hippie movement exploded in Southern California, most churches kept their distance from the barefoot, long-haired young people searching for meaning. Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa decided to change the way his church did ministry so they would know they were welcome. One of the young people who walked in was Greg Laurie, a 17-year-old lost in the drug culture. He met Christ there, and he went on to preach the gospel to millions.
The Great Commission does not happen by accident. It happens when a church is willing to be inconvenienced so that someone else can be reached.
The Gospel Is for All People
Jesus did not say “go into the parts of the world that are comfortable.” Before His ascension He repeated the scope: “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The gospel is for all people, and in a local church that means at least three things.
Every age. A healthy church works for everybody, from the nursery to the nursing home.
Every class. The gospel reaches from the trailer park to Park Avenue. “The rich and the poor meet together; the LORD is the maker of them all” (Proverbs 22:2).
Every race. This is where many churches in the American South still struggle. People shop together, go to school together and cheer for the same football team on Friday night, and then go to separate churches on Sunday. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called eleven o’clock on Sunday morning one of the most segregated hours in America, and in many communities that is still true.
Scripture takes the issue seriously. In Numbers 12, Miriam and Aaron “spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married” (Numbers 12:1). Cush lay south of Egypt, and Moses’ wife was an African woman. The passage then adds four sobering words: “And the LORD heard it” (Numbers 12:2). Miriam was struck with leprosy. God does not look favorably on racism or on any kind of othering.
If people live, shop and learn together, they ought to worship together. A church that wants to fulfill the Great Commission asks a simple question: who is already on our property, and how do we open the door to them?
Salvation Is a Moment, Discipleship Is a Process
Mark 16 continues: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16), and signs follow those who believe. Salvation happens in a moment. Growth takes a lifetime.
Churches love stories of instant transformation, and they should thank God for them: the addict who walks to the altar and stands up free. But instant transformation is rare. Just as precious is the person who comes to the altar an addict and stands up an addict, because the Holy Spirit has started a work that He will finish.
Abraham is the clearest example. “He believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). His great act of obedience, offering Isaac in Genesis 22, came many years later. James says Abraham’s “faith was completed by his works” (James 2:22), but Abraham was righteous the entire time in between. He was not waiting for that moment to become righteous.
That should make every church patient with new believers. The Holy Spirit does the work of transformation, and the church is not the Holy Spirit. A church committed to the Great Commission builds clear steps for people to grow, and then gives the Spirit time.
The Stakes Are Heaven and Hell
Jesus said the other half of Mark 16:16 too: “whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Jude describes the mission in urgent terms: “save others by snatching them out of the fire” (Jude 1:23). And Jesus said, “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
If that is true, then every community is full of people who need rescue. A church is not just a gathering. It is a rescue operation.
Pastors have long told the story of a minister who moved a church piano out of the middle of the room and was run out of town for it. His successor moved the piano back into place one inch every night until nobody noticed. The story is usually told as a model of wise leadership. And slow, careful change is good for attendance and good for income. But the question every church has to face is this: how many people die without Christ while we move the piano one inch at a time? How many inches is a soul worth?
When a church argues over song selection, chairs and lighting while people around it are perishing, it has confused maintenance with multiplication.
Urgency Is Not Unkindness
When a tornado is headed for your house, nobody calls it rude to shout “Get in the closet!” Urgency in a life-or-death moment is love. The same is true of the gospel. Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17).
The Great Commission asks believers to set aside their feelings, their preferences and their history for the sake of people who need Jesus. It asks the church to lead as if it might be the only hope in its community, because for someone nearby, it might be.
A Gospel Church Between People and Hell
The Great Commission is not a program. It is the reason the church exists. The gospel is for every age, every class and every race. The people who receive it will need time and grace to grow. And the stakes could not be higher.
If you are looking for a church that is serious about that mission, Citylight Church would love to meet you. We are building lives on Jesus, because an incredible life is built on the finished work of Jesus Christ.