Before Jesus left to go back to heaven, he left his followers with a specific mission variously stated in Matthew, Mark and Acts.  In Matthew 28:18, Jesus calls his followers to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all I have commanded you.”  In Mark’s Gospel Jesus says, “Go into all the world and proclaim the Good News to every creature!”  (16:15).  And, in the book of Acts, Jesus declares to his disciples, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and even to the ends of the earth!”  

    These three passages sum up our corporate and individual mission as Christians: to proclaim the Good News that Jesus has paid the penalty for the sins of humanity and has risen from the dead, to make disciples and teach them to obey and follow Jesus and to be personal witnesses of what Jesus has done in our lives both at home and abroad.

    Now most of us don’t specifically have the gift of evangelism so what do we do?  How can we all participate in this where God has individually placed us?  It starts with just two simple steps.  

    The first step involves our mind-set.  When asked by a pastor what he did for a living, a man once responded, “I am an ambassador for Christ cleverly disguised as a machine operator.”  Now that is a great mind-set!  No matter where we are in our lives, whether retired or working full time or raising kids full time, we are first and foremost, as Christians, ambassadors for Christ as Paul says in 2 Cor. 5:19-20, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us...”

    So look around you!  God has placed you where you are, with the friends you have, with the neighbors beside you, with your colleagues at work for a purpose, namely to represent Christ (i.e. be an ambassador) to a lost and dying world. Start thinking of your life in those terms.  That’s the first step.

    Step two just means identifying specific people around you by name that you can begin to pray for every day that they may begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and thus be reconciled to God.  When asked why his ministry had been such a magnificent success throughout the decades, Billy Graham once responded that it took three things, “Prayer, Prayer and Prayer.”  If we want to see our friends, our families our communities and our world come to Jesus we need to care enough to pray.