Day 1 of 10
The Great Commission and the Long Silence
Why It Took 1,700 Years
Scripture Readings
Today's Reading
The words are among the most familiar in all of Scripture: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:18–20).
And yet, for the vast majority of Christian history, these words were not understood as a standing command for the whole church. The prevailing view — held by Luther, Calvin, and most Reformers — was that the Great Commission had been fulfilled by the original apostles. The gospel had been offered to the nations; if some had not received it, that was God's sovereign decision. There was, in this view, no ongoing obligation to send missionaries to unreached peoples.
The result was a striking paradox. Christianity, born in the Middle East and carried by Paul across the Roman Empire, spent most of its history confined to Europe and its colonial outposts. Vast regions of Africa, Asia, and the Americas remained untouched by the gospel for over a thousand years after Christ's ascension.
Biblical Connection
Jesus had been explicit about the scope of the mission. In Acts 1:8, just before His ascension, He told the disciples: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." The trajectory was clear: from the center outward, from the familiar to the foreign, from the near to the far. Jerusalem first — but not Jerusalem only.
The book of Acts records the beginning of that movement. The gospel spread from Jerusalem to Antioch to Ephesus to Rome. But the end of Acts is not the end of the story. Paul reached Rome; he did not reach China, India, sub-Saharan Africa, or the Americas. The "end of the earth" remained a promise, not yet a reality.
Going Deeper
Jonathan Edwards, the great eighteenth-century theologian, was among the first to articulate a vision for global missions: "A humble and heavenly frame of soul, in the exercise of grace and in the duties of religion, is a preparation for the enjoyment of heaven. The saints in this world are preparing for that world" (Charity and Its Fruits, Sermon 15). Edwards saw the spread of the gospel as part of God's grand purpose to fill the earth with His glory. His writings on revival and the coming kingdom inspired the generation that would launch the modern missionary movement.
The question the church had avoided for centuries was finally being asked: If Christ commanded us to go to all nations, and we have not gone — what are we waiting for?
The answer arrived in 1793, when a cobbler from Northamptonshire, England, boarded a ship bound for India. His name was William Carey, and he would change the world.
Key Quotes
“A humble and heavenly frame of soul, in the exercise of grace and in the duties of religion, is a preparation for the enjoyment of heaven. The saints in this world are preparing for that world.”
“The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed.”
Prayer Focus
Asking God to renew your sense of the Great Commission — not as a slogan but as a personal calling to carry the gospel to your world
Meditation
Jesus said the gospel would reach 'the end of the earth.' For eighteen centuries, the church barely attempted this. What does this delay reveal about the gap between what we believe and what we do?
Question for Discussion
For most of church history, the Great Commission was understood as applying only to the original apostles. What changed — and are there commands of Jesus that we might be similarly limiting or ignoring today?