As you go

These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. – Matthew 10.5-7

Matthew 10 is an interesting chapter. Jesus sent out the twelve disciples. This was a sort of missionary blitz only to the people of Israel. Jesus came to the Jews first and this was the first effort. We know it is a special time because they were told to move quickly. They were told that is people received them, great, but if people rejected them to shake the dust off their feet and move on. They were given special signs and miracles to confirm their words.

Though this was a special mission there are some immutable truths that apply all of Jesus’ followers for all time. Some of the principles apply to all of those carrying God’s word to people around us.

The first one is pretty simple – as you go, preach. Preach that the kingdom of God is at hand.

The first part is what I want to focus on. I want to apply it to us today. As we got out in life from day to day and go about our daily business we need to keep in mind that our purpose as we go is to preach Christ.

As we go we ought to always have in mind that we are ambassadors for Christ. We go. We give to the needy. We love. We do acts of kindness.

But as we do all that – we preach the glorious gospel.