The apostles were missionaries because they too were sent by our Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:19; Acts 1:8). The word “apostles” means “sent.” They went, carried, and died carrying the message of Christ to all the world.This means that, if you are a believer, he has sent you to be a witness, to share the gospel with others, to be his missionary where you live, where you work, where you spend time.I am a missionary here in Washington. God called me to leave California to go to East Texas to Oklahoma and now here to share the gospel and make disciples. God allowed us to serve Him for ten years since we left California.This is not to say that there are no “vocational missionaries” who do this work full-time. There are, but what missionaries do is not exclusive to them. It’s something that all of us must do.
This author mentions three things that the missionary does:
1. Communicate (proclaim, preach, teach, instruct) the Good News that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Savior to those who haven’t heard or accepted it.
2. It communicates a new way of living in Christ (directs others to salvation in Christ, baptism
3. Integrates new believers into a new community (the Lord’s Supper, social and moral transformation in their way of life, love, discipleship)
Based on this, we see that this aligns with what the Lord’s Church are called to do. This is what our mission is as well. The goal of our growth as disciples of Christ is to enable us to do the mission of God anywhere we are, here or anywhere in the world.In this chapter we find the first official missionaries of the church who go to reach the unreached.From here on, chapters 13-28 focus on Paul the missionary from 42-62 A.D.
