A Third of Us

“As your name deserves, O God, you will be praised to the ends of the earth. Your strong right hand is filled with victory.” (Psalm 48:10)

This coming Sunday, some 2 billion Christians will gather for worship on Pentecost Sunday. They will go to church, hear the Bible in their own language, and fellowship with their Christian friends. They will remember the outpouring of the Spirit of God that empowered the disciples to take the message of Christ to the waiting world.

Yet a sobering reality still exists: out of 8 billion people in the world, nearly 3 billion (a third of us) have never heard the truth of Jesus. These are people who have never heard the good news of salvation. They will perish in their sins unless someone tells them about faith in Jesus. We call them the “unreached”.

The unreached are classified in three ways:

There is no church for them to attend. Approximately 3,000 ethnic groups have no known active church-planting strategy, no missionaries, and no local expressions of a church within their culture.

They have no Bible in their language. Over 2,000 languages have absolutely no portion of the Bible translated and no active translation work taking place.

They do not know a single follower of Jesus. These people are completely isolated from anyone with knowledge of Jesus.

Nearly 2,000 years after Jesus sent out his workers, no one has brought them good news.

God spoke of a day when the "earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9). The people of God sang in hope that “all the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord" (Psalm 22:27). And God said that his Messiah would be “a light for the nations,” that his salvation “may reach to the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6).

This has been the mission from the beginning. God has been set on redeeming mankind and overturning the works of darkness (Genesis 3:15; John 12:46; 1 John 3:8). This was promised to the patriarchs, envisioned by the prophets, and proclaimed by Jesus. It is through the redemption of his Son that God “has rescued us from the dominion of darkness.” He has brought us into the kingdom of the Son, and we are now participants in the grand story of the Bible: making known the name of Jesus to those who do not know him.

Christ’s kingdom is an advancing one. The grave could not hold him. His resurrection defeated death. And now the gates of hell cannot prevail against the advance of his church. In his final words, he called us to be the means of this kingdom advance; to go to every tribe, tongue, and nation and make his glory known (Matthew 28:19; 1 Corinthians 10:31).

We are called God’s coworkers (1 Corinthians 3:9) when we engage in the work of evangelism (planting the seeds of faith) and discipleship (watering the resulting growth). He calls us to obedience, to faithfully share his gospel with those who are without access to him. We plant, and we water; and we trust him to supply the growth.

The hope we trust in is the power of God! His Spirit will accomplish its work. He promises his Word will not return void. The ends of the earth shall hear because God’s Word is powerful and active. Yes, we are told to dwell in it, to do it, to hold fast to it. We are also told to proclaim it, to send it, and to share it. Otherwise, “how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?” (Romans 10:14)

Jonathan Edwards said, “Though the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, yet God is pleased to make use of the agency of men, and to bless their endeavors for the advancement of the kingdom of his Son.”

Go, share the good news. Pray for the third of the world without access. Respond in obedience to God’s call and help bring the praise of God to the ends of the earth.

Kurtis and the elders

P.S. to learn more, visit athirdofus.org . Everyone has a skill – share yours with real people and fulfill real needs around the world . Or find out what it takes to be a missionary .