Someone once said that our real problem with Scripture is not with those things that are difficult to understand, but with those things that are all too plain, but are discomforting and challenging. There are few things that are more plain in God’s Word than the gradual revealing of his heart for all the peoples of the world and his commands to his people to carry out his purposes. In the New Testament there are three, clear, Commission Commands from the lips of the Lord Jesus, that relate directly to the work of World Mission, and we are going to consider them through this short series of articles.

The first comes in John 4:35, at the end of the familiar account of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman. “…open your eyes and look”, says the Lord.

We need to see the hundreds of men and women with whom we brush shoulders on a daily basis, not simply in terms of human categories but as those who are in a desperate spiritual plight and need the gospel.

The context of this first Commission Commandment is crucial. After Jesus revealed himself to be the Messiah, the woman hurries back to her town and returns with a crowd of interested neighbours, mostly dressed, no doubt, in the traditional Samaritan white flowing robes. The disciples, having returned from a shopping expedition urge Jesus to eat, but he insists there are more urgent matters on his mind, namely the ripening harvest. When Jesus and the disciples looked at the crowd hurrying down the road, they saw two different things. The Lord saw spiritual potential, a harvest ripening; the disciples merely saw a crowd of people. Jesus felt the urgency of the spiritual; the disciples the rumble of the stomach.

LOSTNESS

We are, says the Lord, to look – but to look and to see we need a special two-dimensional vision:

We need to look spiritually – we need to look at the world and see it as the Lord sees it. We need to see the hundreds of men and women with whom we brush shoulders on a daily basis, not simply in terms of human categories but as those who are in a desperate spiritual plight and need the gospel. When Jesus travelled through the towns and villages of his day and saw the crowds “he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). It wasn’t their economic or social plight that moved him most but their spiritual lostness.

We need to look geographically – we need to lift up our eyes, to get them off the narrow perspectives and horizons of our everyday lives and circumstances and look at the great harvest fields of the world. There has never been a day when it was easier for the Christian in the west to know what God was doing in the wider world, and yet, despite all the resources of information technology and communication, God’s people in this part of the world seem to know little and care less about the wider work of the Kingdom than did the people of my parents’ or even grandparents’ generation. We should be aware of what is going on in the world around us, mindful that it is all part of God’s plan for the bringing of men and women from every people to himself. Scripture tells us that God has appointed Jesus to be “head over all things for the sake of the church” (Ephesians 1:22) - which means that he is governing world affairs in such a way that will ultimately be for the advancement of the Gospel and the building up of the church of Christ.

OBEDIENCE

There are countless ways in which we can be helped to obey this first Commission Commandment – to look – current affairs, missionary biographies, mission literature, missionary meetings and conferences to name but a few.

As a Mission we work hard at producing up-to-date, attractive information about the areas of work to which we have been called and are delighted when we hear how God has used them to stir up prayer or action in response. Use them, and anything else you can get your hands – or eyes – on, and look.