To the Nations

Mark 13:9-11 says "You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. And the Gospel must first be preached to all nations. Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit."

Every time I've read this in the past, my takeaway is that the Holy Spirit is going to be on my tongue during times of trouble if my faith and trust is in the Lord. If I end up getting in trouble, or even if I have a tough speech or presentation to give, I just need to trust that the Holy Spirit is going to give me the words I need to make it through. If I trust as if the words are already there, they always have been!

Today I read it a little differently though. That part still speaks to me the same way, and I think it's an area a lot of people need to learn to put faith into, but the middle verse stuck out to me today.

"And the Gospel must first be preached to all nations."

This is pretty much the great commission in one little sentence, but it's not the sentence that sticks out to me, but where it's written in the context of the chapter.

Jesus wasn't saying, fit the Gospel into your conversation when you're having fun eating dinner with your friends, playing football at the park and going fishing this weekend. That's all great, and we should find opportunities to plug Jesus into conversations whenever possible, but the context is different. It's more like, make sure you bring the name of Jesus up when people are beating you up, throwing rocks at you, making fun of you, calling you crazy, and making a mockery of you. Then expect to be thrown into jail. But even then, remember to bring up the name of Jesus and let the Holy Spirit speak through you!

It's RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE! There's no chance that Jesus is not telling us that preaching the Gospel to all the nations is going to result in some pretty wicked responses. The Gospel isn't something that will necessarily be taken well, and not something people will necessarily accept. But, regardless, the Holy Spirit is prepared to take us through those moments. There's no promise that it will be safe - only a promise that Jesus name will be made known.

The biggest thing I always want to know in my work, when playing sports, in my hobbies, or when leading people is what do I need to do to succeed? What's my next step? What is the end goal and what actions do I need to take right now to get there?

Well... I think these 3 verses tell us pretty clearly that the end goal is for the Gospel to be preached to all the nations and the step we need to take right now is to make the name of Jesus known wherever we are. Even if dropping the name of Jesus could potentially result in something negative - it's still the direction He's asking us to go. He doesn't just want us to do it, but promises to use it for His glory!