On Pentecost Sunday, 50 days after Jesus was resurrected, 10 days after He ascended, Holy Spirit descended during the Feast of Pentecost. The fledgling church was empowered to reach the world. Jesus told them, “Go to Jerusalem and wait. You will receive Power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will be My witnesses. To Jerusalem. Judea. Samaria. And the uttermost parts of the earth.” He also told them that the gospel of the Kingdom would be preached to all the world. Then the end would come. And those 120 disciples did their part. By the end of the first century, the gospel had been preached to their known world. Ten of the original eleven apostles died martyr’s deaths, as did countless others in the quest to fulfill the command of Christ.
So how is it that a third of the world continues to live without the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ? They have no scripture in their heart language. No local church. No Christians in their midst. Two and a half billion people don’t know the good news that I too often take for granted. I visited the Museum of the Bible in February and stood in a library that held copies of the scriptures in all the languages into which it had been translated. There was a huge section of that room that was filled with clear boxes, each representing a heart language of people who did not yet have scripture. It was sobering for me to think of the library in my home with half a dozen Bibles on the shelves, not to mention my phone, which has access to dozens of translations in my heart language.
We are getting closer to completing the task. When I was in Middle School, I heard that it could happen in my lifetime. The Gospel could be preached to the world. But it seems we are always pushing back the target date for this to happen. This isn’t an easy problem to solve. Many of those 2.5 billion people live in countries where it is illegal to be a Christian. These are places that we cannot send traditional missionaries. There are unreached people groups in places so remote, they have never seen an outsider. But Jesus told us that He would give us the power to complete the task He has given. Holy Spirit is freely available to not only give us the message, but the ingenuity it takes to bring the freedom of the Gospel to these people who thirst for something they cannot identify.
There are hundreds of missionaries whose names we can never know because they are not official missionaries. They are businessmen and women. Medical professionals. Individuals with unique skills who take the gospel “as they go”.
And the world is coming to us. I found out recently that there are representatives of ten unreached people groups (UPGs) in my home county alone. Students, business leaders, even tourists come to the US, and they can return home with a message more precious than any gift or souvenir they might take home with them.
There is a group called A Third of Us who is asking us to pray for the unreached world. Pray for the gospel to reach them. Pray to know your role. It’s going to be an amazing day when we stand in the presence of God Himself with people from every people, tribe and language. I want to make sure that I did my part. #athirdofus.