s His ministry approached its close, Jesus turned to the theme of His coming departure and what the disciples were to do when it took place. Dominant in their minds was a vision of coming glory in an earthly kingdom as the Messiah set up a throne. Even at the Last Supper they squabbled about who would hold what post, for within a few hours they expected Jesus to announce Himself as Messiah, the deliverer of Israel.

Hanging in their memory were several troubling, baffling statements Jesus had made about His going away, but these seemed impossible to reconcile with a coming earthly kingdom. However, the catastrophic events of the approaching weekend destroyed all that, reducing them to dismal gloom. On the Resurrection day two of them reported to the stranger who joined them on the road to Emmaus, “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21).^* The stunning truth of the Resurrection would turn all that around.

In several places the Gospels describe the work given to Christ’s followers as they await His return. Best known is Matthew’s account: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come” (Matt. 24:14). Fleshing out that prediction is Jesus’ post-Resurrection commission to the disciples as He met with them in Galilee: “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; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matt. 28:19, 20). Then we have His parting words given only moments before His ascension: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). After these last words His feet separated from the Mount of Olives, and “a cloud took him out of their sight” (verse 9).

With this assignment of duties Jesus continued with God’s method of outreach to humanity, placing the task in the hands of His followers. He could have commissioned angels, but there is precious value in allowing the redeemed to tell others the joy of how God rescued them.

In these words Jesus was appointing us to a special mission. He was by no means a naive itinerant preacher; He understood to the full the enormity of what He was asking. His followers were to go into a world splintered along dozens of lines. They would encounter social conflicts:  racial, language, and cultural prejudices, long ago hardened into immovable barriers. They would find class conflicts: masters and slaves, rich and poor, intellectuals and unlearned people. They would encounter people of all different temperaments, from the sly and treacherous to the innocent and gullible. The forces of division would confront His message head-on, for His was a message of ultimate unity in one family of His people.

How could His witnesses cope with such embedded and intractable forces? They carried nothing except the news of a Christ the Saviour who was slain on behalf of sinners, gloriously resurrected and ascended, and who was to return for His people. And in all this they based their confidence on the Scriptures, in which His ministry had been foreseen centuries earlier by the prophets. The Desire of Ages had in fact come.

The early believers had no profound influence, no good political connections, wealth or standing among the world’s intellectuals. The disciples came from simple backgrounds. And the scope of the task would overwhelm even the most gifted. But Christ promised power, the ministry of the Holy Spirit—He who alone has the ability to transform humans from the servants of Satan to the children of God. It was in His power that they were to overcome.

Every Believer Empowered
We must not suppose Christ’s work was to be carried out solely by the collective effort of an organization, although that certainly was a central part of His plan. He founded a church, a unified body of believers who shared His message and cooperated with one another. He was the head of this body and vested in it great significance. But fundamental to Christ’s church was the empowerment of every believer. Herein lay the genius of the apostolic church.

With the stoning of Stephen a fierce persecution fell upon the Jerusalem church, driving its members into the corners of the land. We read the account: “And they were all scattered through the region of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles” (Acts 8:1). While the apostles stayed by to provide guidance, it was the individual church members who went everywhere telling the story of Jesus. And people listened, believed, were baptized, and became themselves zealous followers of Christ. His commission was made to every believer, not alone the ministers and evangelists. It called for extension of the gospel message everywhere, when believers as zealous students of the Word of God and empowered by the Spirit gave their testimony. The outreach was intentional, planned, and effective.

Sadly, over the course of history Christians did rather poorly in carrying out Christ’s commission. Through the ages we have become caught up in theological debate, spent our energies building ecclesiastical machinery, and lost sight of mission. With the passage of time the living, dynamic faith reported in the book of Acts faded to a religion of rituals and forms. The profoundly simple character of Jesus’ work became all too often absorbed into the pursuit of power, wealth, and prestige. Eventually Christians launched crusades against those who resisted them, whether of different faiths or dissenters within the Christian community. The sword and fiery stake supposedly would make new converts. The Word of God lost its place in the everyday lives of church members, displaced by a system deeply penetrated by cultures foreign to the work of Christ.

But our Lord did not despair. In the midst of apostasy He raised up Reformers who restored the Scriptures again to the center of Christian life. The Bible appeared in the languages of the people, and great changes followed. At first slowly, but accelerating as the vision became clearer, immersion in the Word finally brought Christians back once more to the grand commission Christ had so long before given His followers. A great missionary movement resulted, with the planting of the message of Christ and the translation of the Scriptures into hundreds of new tongues as churches arose on every continent. It is true that at times modern missionaries became entangled in the parallel colonial expansion, but we are well beyond that now. The value of their work stands apart from any political system, bringing new life and the hope of eternity to all who believe.

Today we remain faithful to that original commission from Jesus. The message of His saving grace is reaching people in every part of the earth and is destined to finish its work in glory. We rejoice in reports of new places entered, the rapid expansion of the family of God, and the prospects for continued rapid growth. For the first time we have reached a 12-month pe-riod in which 1 million new members were added to the Adventist family.

In the last New Testament book to be written we have a clear vision of God’s final people, those living particularly in our times. In Revelation 14 the apostle John looked in vision to see that last group of believers who would finish Christ’s assignment: God’s message to all the world. Cast in the form of an angelic announcement, the final message from heaven was carried “to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation and tribe and tongue and people” (verse 6). According to prophecy, they will live in troublous times, but are undaunted.

These are a people who take seriously the revealed Word of God, the Scriptures, finding there a cluster of truths about who God is, what His purposes are, how He has expressed His overwhelming love to us, and consequently how waiting Christians will live.

Worship at the Center
The message of the first angel sets the content of God’s message. It begins with the “eternal gospel” in a special setting relating to the particular needs of earth’s final age. Notice the elements: “And he said with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the fountains of water’” (verse 7). The message begins with the ultimate truth, with God, who is at the center of all things, the one who provides us a way to come into har-mony with Him. He is worthy of worship and praise.

This is especially significant, for the final conflict between good and evil resolves itself in a question of worship. Worship begins as an attitude followed by an act, in which God is acknowledged as the all-central, eternal one into whose presence we come as dependent creatures. Indeed, this very message specifically cites His creatorship, being the point of origin for all that exists, ourselves included. It is appropriate that we who are formed by the exercise of His unique power and honored by sharing elements of His character and His image should bring our tribute of worship before Him. Aside from Him we are and possess nothing. Heaven’s final call is for all who share these, His gifts, to bring adoration to Him.

Not only is He the majestic author of all things; He reveals Himself in an act of unspeakable grace, sending His Son to redeem us from sin. Here is the essence of the gospel, a perpetual demonstration for all eternity of the depth of His love for those He made. By our witness we rejoice in the truth that the Almighty, sole ruler of the universe, is benevolent, compassionate, and redeeming toward us who have gone astray.

In turning to Him as Creator, we acknowledge His sovereignty, His ownership of us and all that we are, including the Sabbath He has set aside as an everlasting memorial to His creative act; and that reminds us of who He is and of our relationship to Him. Of all Christian people, the message of the first angel enriches us as Adventists, not only with an understanding of who He is as Creator and Redeemer, but of the cosmic plan through which He is working out the great questions of loyalty, sin and its consequences, and a final destiny of the redeemed in His kingdom of peace. This, coupled with the truth that we have entered the final time of judgment and the approaching end of the reign of sin, sends us with renewed enthusiasm to carry out His mission. It is in these mighty truths unfolded in the Word of God that we find our identity and the restored meaning of our message to a dying world. It is Christ proclaimed as Creator, Saviour, and coming King. However difficult the times, loyalty to God is the mark of the last generation of believers.

But our task carries us further. We speak of how the Word of God defines His truth and sends us forth in joyful mission. But those same Scriptures carry the expression “word” one more step, and in that lies the essence of all to which we bear witness. Personalized, the Word appeared among us as God’s final revelation: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Beyond speaking to us from the distance of heaven, He entered time and space, plunged into human history, and provided for us the ultimate, majestic portrayal of His character and will. When this truth penetrates our convictions, it propels us forward with an unfailing joy, for we bear the grandest of all news, that the Majesty of the universe loves us to the ultimate degree, providing eternal life to all who will accept Him. Sharing such news as this lifts us above all the divisions, conflicts, and enterprises that so stain this sin-washed world. Somehow the differences among us fade in the light of Him who, as the Word of God, is also the light of the world. As one grand assembly we of His family rise to worship Him and call upon Him to command the inmost desires of our hearts.

This is the secret that fires us, bearing witness to Him who not only gave us His word through the prophets and apostles, but is Himself the Word manifest in the flesh. How can we do other than immerse ourselves and all that we have in the mission of revealing Him to the world? To us has been given the ultimate gift of God, to whom we will bear testimony throughout eternity. We have experienced it, and as witnesses we know beyond question that God is love. Let us carry this message to all the world.

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^* All Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version.

Questions for Sharing:
1. Is our mission identical with the mission of other Christians? If not, what is the difference?

2. Why is worship a key issue in the final conflict?

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Jan Paulsen is the president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Silver Spring, Maryland.