150. Rock Goes The Gospel - Whitesanake "Here I Go Again"

"Here I Go Again" is a #1 hit song recorded by Whitesnake. Originally released on their 1982 album, Saints & Sinners. This song charts the inevitable "Journey" theme of some who sets out again on the open road. Someone who is going it again on their own. The contrast is true of the great commission as Jesus promises to be with us all the way. We set out on a journey with a mission.

This song "Here I Go Again" echoes this mornings scripture passage. This morning we will be looking at the Great Commission in Matthew 28.

You have a mission; we all do. When we become a part of God’s family, our mission is given to us by Jesus himself: Simply the mission is to help others join that family, too. It's a simple message, since God loves everyone, there is no one in the entire world he doesn’t want to be in his family.

When Jesus tells the Church to go to “all nations,” he isn’t talking about countries; he’s talking about people groups. He tells us to go to every people group and make disciples.

Today, there are 13,000 people groups in the world yet there are 7,051 people groups that, 2,000 years after Jesus’ death on the cross are still unreached. Why? Is it that we simply don’t care enough? Is it that we’re too busy with our own lives to care about people who are dying spiritually.

Is it that instead of telling those unreached people groups about the love of Jesus, we tell them by default to “go to Hell.” Is it that we don't take Jesus' call to fulfil the great commission seriously? 

Are you among those who say "It's a huge task" and "It's to big to accomplish" Certainly, it’s a huge task. God’s mission is global. But it’s not mission impossible; it’s mission inevitable. The Great Commission will be fulfilled. It’s a certainty.

In fact, the Bible gives us a picture of its fulfillment in Revelation 7:9: “There before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” One day there will be people from every language group in the world standing before the throne of Jesus.

The only question for us is this: Will our generation be the ones to do it? Or will we give up our responsibility and pass it on to someone else? Will another generation be the ones who get the privilege of fulfilling God’s great mission that he created the whole universe for in the first place? Or will we in this generation take a stand?